Nigel Farage received an apology from the BBC and Simon Jack on Monday. A 'senior source' at NatWest was delighted to release private information about Nigel Farage's finances, The Telegraph may reveal.
Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News, said the corporation had received express clearance – a scandalous tale of shutting it down lay ahead. Coutts account.
The article contained claims by “people familiar with the matter” that the former leader of the UK Independence Party had been excluded from the bank's client base because his wealth fell below a set threshold.It has since been revealed that the financial institution has closed. Mr Farage's stories are at least in part due to his views on issues such as Brexit, immigration and net zero.
Ms Turnness made the revelations in a letter of apology to the politician in which she explained how the BBC came to run the story about his personal finances.
She admitted that the corporation received “inaccurate” information from a “highly placed and reliable source” at Coutts , which is owned by the NatWest Group.
My thanks to @BBCSimonJack for the apology.
I also received an apology letter from BBC News CEO Deborah Turnness.
I am very grateful to both. pic.twitter.com/ddjBkLUWUf
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) July 24, 2023
“Our business editor Simon Jack has been told by a highly placed and trusted source that the bank is challenging the story you posted, ie. e. that Coutts closed your accounts for political reasons,” she wrote to him.
“The source said that your accounts were closed for commercial reasons. We considered this a story of significant public interest and reached out to the source to see if we agreed to release the information. They said they were.
“After the information from your access request was released, it became clear that your political views influenced the bank's decision to close your accounts.”
Ms. Turness added: “Obviously, the story we originally published, based on the information provided by our source, turned out to be inaccurate.
“While our teams have taken the right steps to correct this on our corrections and clarifications page, I can understand why you think this story contributed to your significant and humiliating publicity. So I would like to apologize to you on behalf of BBC News.”
Mr Jack also personally apologized to Mr Farage, tweeting:
The information about Nigel Farage and his bank accounts on which we based our reports came from a reliable and highly placed source. However, the information turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate. So I would like to apologize to Mr. Farage.
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack), July 24, 2023
Mr. Farage wrote to Howard Davis, Chairman of the NatWest Group, urging him to launch an internal investigation into the leak of his financial details.
NatWest was contacted for comment.
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