Nigel Farage: was former UKIP leader cancelled by Coutts?
Plight of outspoken politician throws light on question of whether banks are playing politics with their own customers

Cancel culture, already the blight of British universities, seems to be creeping into banking, said The Daily Telegraph.
Look at the plight of the former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who says that his personal and business accounts have been closed without explanation by a bank that he has used since 1980: Coutts & Co, NatWest’s high-end private division. Farage claims that he has since tried to open an account with nine other banks, but has been rejected – a form of punishment, he suspects, for his role in Brexit.
‘Banks must not play politics’
One must be careful not to rush to judgement in such cases, said The Times. But he is not alone in apparently being targeted for violating fashionable corporate orthodoxies. An Anglican vicar in Cumbria had his bank account with the Yorkshire Building Society closed down because he’d objected to its stance on trans issues. The Free Speech Union had its PayPal accounts frozen last year. This is disgraceful. Banks must not “play politics with their own customers”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It is indeed a good idea not to rush to judgement, said Simon Jack on BBC News. People “familiar with Coutts’s move” said that it was not a political decision, but a purely “commercial” one. Farage’s funds had fallen below the threshold required to hold an account at Coutts (£3m in savings). He has been offered a NatWest account instead.
‘Absurdly onerous regulations’
Besides, if Farage is having trouble opening a new account, it’s not a “woke conspiracy”, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. It’s the law. Farage is a “politically exposed person”, or PEP, someone whose political role opens them up to a risk of bribery. This means that, under the money laundering regulations, banks have to vet and check their income. It is a tricky and time-consuming process; sometimes banks reject such customers, as is their right.
But these regulations are absurdly onerous, said Dominic Lawson in the Daily Mail. They affect not just MPs, diplomats, judges and so on but their families. My 28-year-old daughter, who has Down’s syndrome, was unable to open a Barclays account because her grandfather – the late Nigel Lawson – had been identified as a PEP. This is ridiculous: not a single MP has been prosecuted for money-laundering. Parliament is now pushing for an overdue change to the rules.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
A running list of RFK Jr.'s controversies
In Depth The man atop the Department of Health and Human Services has had no shortage of scandals over the years
By Brigid Kennedy
-
Film reviews: Sinners and The King of Kings
Feature Vampires lay siege to a Mississippi juke joint and an animated retelling of Jesus' life
By The Week US
-
Music reviews: Bon Iver, Valerie June, and The Waterboys
Feature "Sable, Fable," "Owls, Omens, and Oracles," "Life, Death, and Dennis Hopper"
By The Week US
-
Labour and the so-called 'banter ban'
Talking Point Critics are claiming that a clause in the new Employment Rights Bill will spell the end of free-flowing pub conversation
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK
-
Climate: Trump's attempt to bring back coal
Feature Trump rolls back climate policies with executive orders aimed at reviving the coal industry
By The Week US
-
RFK Jr.: A public-health wrecking ball
Feature Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doubles down on anti-vaccine policies amid a growing measles outbreak
By The Week US
-
Trump's budget: Gutting Medicaid to pass tax cuts?
Feature To extend Trump's tax cuts, the GOP is looking to cut Medicaid and other assistance programs
By The Week US
-
Trade war with China threatens U.S. economy
Feature Trump's tariff battle with China is hitting U.S. businesses hard and raising fears of a global recession
By The Week US
-
Corruption: The road to crony capitalism
Feature Trump's tariff pause sent the stock market soaring — was it insider trading?
By The Week US
-
How 'China shock 2.0' will roil global markets
Feature An overflow of Chinese goods is flooding the global market. Tariffs won’t stop it.
By The Week US
-
Retribution: Trump calls for prosecution of critics
Feature Trump targets former officials who spoke out against him, sending a warning to future whistleblowers
By The Week US