Nigel Farage Claims His Bank Account Has Been Closed With ‘No Explanation’
British political leader Nigel Farage has claimed that the bank he has been with for over 40 years has closed his bank account with “no explanation.”
In a post on Twitter on Thursday, the GB News and former UKIP and Brexit Party leader said that his bank has closed all his accounts, claiming “political persecution.”
“I have been given no explanation or recourse as to why this is happening to me,” he said.
“This is serious political persecution at the very highest level of our system. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you too,” he added.
Banks
“I have been with the same banking group since 1980. I’ve had my personal accounts with them since that date, and my business accounts right through the 1990s,” said Farage.
Farage did not name the bank, but said that in recent years too he was with “one of the subsidiaries of this big banking group, one with a very prestigious name.”
“I got a phone call a couple of months ago, to say ‘we are closing your accounts,’ I asked why [but] no reason was given.
“I was told a letter would come, which would explain everything. The letter came through and simply said, ‘We are closing your accounts. We want to finish it all by a date,’ which is around about now.
“I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I complained. I emailed the chairman, a lackey phoned me to say that ‘It was a commercial decision,’ which I have to say, I don’t believe for a single moment.”
He went on: “So I thought, well, there we are, I’ll have to go and find a different bank.
“I’ve been to six, no seven banks actually. Ask them all, could I have a personal and a business account? And the answer has been no,” he said.
‘You Don’t Actually Exist’
He said that without a bank account, “you effectively become a non-person, you don’t actually exist.”
Farage mulled over a few reasons why he had effectively been unbanked. He said that corporate structures in this country “who did not want Brexit to happen” will “never ever forgive me.”
He mentioned that Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant last year used parliamentary privilege to claim that Farage was paid more than £500,000 by the Russian state through his appearances on Russia Today in 2018.
“I didn’t receive a penny from any source with even any link to Russia,” said Farage.
He said that he may have been deemed a politically exposed person (PEP), a term used for someone who, through their prominent position or influence, is more susceptible to being involved in bribery or corruption.
The Epoch Times has not been able to independently verify Farages’ claims.
A representative for Farage told The Epoch Times that he did not want to comment further for the time being.
ESG
The insurgent parties Reclaim and Reform has warned that banks’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies are being used to penalise certain views such as critiquing net zero policies.
In January, the leader of the Reform Party Richard Tice, who is linked to Farage, told The Epoch Times that his commercial mortgage was refused last year because of his outspokenness on net zero policies, which went against the lender’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policy.
ESG investing is used to screen investments based on corporate policies and to encourage companies to promote “sustainable practices.”
The leader of the political movement the Reclaim Party and actor Laurence Fox told The Epoch Times that he believed that ESG is the corporate version of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) which he has often heavily criticised.
“There are things that you are not allowed to talk about without being totally shut down by a political establishment, and it doesn’t matter which party is in charge, it looks after itself,” he said.
Fox said that—while not necessarily ESG related—his party has had major issues securing a bank account for donations, which has only recently been remedied.
Last November Conservative MP Sally-Ann Hart presented, but later withdrew, an amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which would have made it illegal for a financial services provider to withhold or withdraw service from a customer if it’s related to their freedom of expression.
This was after accounts from the Free Speech Union (FSU) and the Daily Sceptic blog, were frozen by Paypal without a clear explanation, though later restored.
Last year, Hart told The Epoch Times she was discussing if Financial Conduct Authority was the right body to adjudicate over matters of freedom of expression and free speech.
“If we do not progress the issue, I will be bringing the amendment back,” said Hart at the time.
The Epoch Times contacted Chris Bryant for comment.
