Allies claimed that treatment of Nigel Farage by Coutts and NatWest had transformed him into Britain’s newest “consumer champion,” and he has vowed to assist thousands of people in flooding major banks with requests for information about why they were denied an account.
The former Ukip leader will be overseeing a website. The website will assist people who wish to learn why the bank has rejected their application for a bank account. Farage discovered through a subject access request that, despite Coutts’ earlier denials, his political beliefs had contributed to the deletion of his account.
They say Nigel Farage wants to transform the independent website into a non-partisan tool aimed at helping those who believe banking services were denied to them due to their political views. It will provide them with a step-by-step guide to demanding the personal information a bank holds about them.
While NatWest, which own Coutts, has reportedly faced hundreds rather than thousands of similar requests so far, Farage and his supporters believe the new website will assist those daunted by the process of questioning their bank.
“This is cross-party, it is non-partisan,” said an ally. “Dare I say, how the liberal elite – for want of a better term – have managed to turn Nigel Farage into one of the country’s leading consumer champions, I have no idea.”
Fallout from Farage’s case
There has already been a huge fallout from Farage’s case. In the wake of the row, Dame Alison Rose, the chief executive of NatWest Group, eventually resigned . This is after disclosing that she had been the source of a BBC story . It claimed that they closed Farage’s account for commercial reasons.
Peter Flavel, chief executive of Coutts, soon followed her out of the door. Farage also wants NatWest Group’s chairman, Howard Davies, to stand aside.
While Downing Street made clear that Rose could not stay in her post, the government appears to be more protective of Davies. Andrew Griffith, the City minister, said on Friday night that it would not be “helpful” for the NatWest Group’s chairman to quit.
