Nigel Farage has launched a campaign against a “major national debanking scandal”. Credit: Carl Court/Getty Images
Banks are trying to push cash out of society, Nigel Farage warned, saying he would welcome a Royal Commission in the sector.
The former Ukip leader launched a campaign to settle a “big national scandal” debanking after his Coutts accounts were closed due to his political views.
Pointing to figures showing more than 1,000 accounts being closed every day, Mr Farage argued that the British's difficulty accessing funds goes far beyond his own experience.
“Our taxes have gone up to bail out the banks in 2008 and 2009, and in return they closed 5,000 branches across the country,” he said on GB News's Camille Tomini show.
“They tell businesses—some have a fish stand—sorry, we don’t need cash,” “well, I don’t have a credit card machine,” “we don’t need your business.” They are trying to force cash out of the economy.
“Any unusual payment that goes into your account could result in a block. Let's say you sold a motorcycle to a French motorcycle collector and the payment comes from the French account and an alarm is triggered.
“We openly treat the local window cleaner as if he could be a front for a Colombian drug ring. It costs £100 to process every pound of laundered money found in the system.
“The government and parliament should consider the law. It just doesn't work, it's not only ruining lives in Britain, it's hurting businesses in the UK.”
Nigel Farage's bank account history
A Telegraph investigation found that Mr Farage, whose new campaign was launched together with the website AccountClosed.org on Saturday evening, closed his account with Coutts after a private bank decided his views were “not aligned with our values.”
Dame Alison Rose resigned as CEO of Coutts' parent company NatWest last week – after she admitted she gave the BBC personal information about him and erroneously claimed the closure was solely because he fell below the bank's wealth threshold
When asked if he wanted a public inquiry into the broader debanking phenomenon, Mr Farage replied: “Not a parliamentary inquiry that would put him in the long grass.”
“I would be happy to hold a Royal Commission, provided it happens quickly. The information we received today is that there are now 1,000 bank accounts being closed a day… We need to move incredibly fast.”
The Royal Commission idea was also praised by Dame Priti Patel, former Home Secretary , who told the same program that voters whose businesses depend on cash had experienced banking difficulties “for years.”
“I don't know. I don’t think that this can be left to the discretion of politicians or parliament,” she said. “I don't think regulators can be trusted anymore. I think more investigations are needed… Institutions have been licensed to operate in this way and there is no oversight and public accountability.”
“The government must intervene”
Mr Farage criticized Rachel Reeves, the Labor Shadow Chancellor, for pursuing “identity politics” after Ms Reeves criticized what she saw as “bullying attitude” towards Dame Alison.
He also urged ministers to force Sir to resign Howard Davis, chairman of the NatWest Group, defied the call to resign. He backed Dame Alison after she admitted she was the source of the corrected BBC story.
“Howard Davies was unfit for the job,” said Mr Farage. “The government should intervene before markets open tomorrow and appoint someone new.”
The Telegraph understands ministers are making plans to extend new bank account closing rules to businesses as they escalate their crackdown against creditors. freeze accounts due to customer beliefs.
New measures were announced last week by City Minister Andrew Griffith to change the FCA's guidance on banks to protect depositors' “freedom of expression”. . However, these steps only apply to personal bank accounts.
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