Rishi Sunak promised a crackdown on banks denying accounts to customers based on their opinions as Tory MPs condemned the closure of Nigel Farage’s Coutts account.
The prime minister led a wave of senior Tories condemning the upmarket bank for closing Mr Farage’s accounts in a row over free speech.
Mr Sunak said it “would not be right” for the NatWest-owned lender to shut an account of someone “exercising their right to lawful free speech”.
And he said the government is “cracking down on this process by tightening the rules around account closures”.
“Our new Financial Services and Markets Act puts in place new measures to ensure that Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) are being treated in an appropriate and proportionate manner,” Mr Sunak said.
Treasury economic secretary Andrew Griffith went further, ordering civil servants to look at adding free speech protections to banking licences.
Reforms being considered would force banks to give customers three months’ notice before closing their accounts and provide a full explanation, according to a Treasury source.
Mr Griffith said: “It would be of serious concern if financial services were being denied to anyone exercising their right to lawful free speech.
“Businesses have the right to protect against reputational risks, eg criminal activity, but the privilege of a banking licence in a democracy should imply a duty not to ‘de-bank’ because you disagree with someone’s views.”
And home secretary Suella Braverman launched a review of the Home Office’s own diversity policies, saying the row exposed the “sinister nature” of the “diversity, equity and inclusion industry”.
“Apparently anyone who wants to control our borders & stop the boats can be branded ‘xenophobic’ & have their bank account closed in the name of ‘inclusivity’,” she tweeted.
The row erupted after Mr Farage used a subject access request to obtain a report from Coutts’s reputational risk committee used to justify closing his accounts.
The report showed Coutts made the decision because his views “do not align with our values”, he claimed.
According to the files handed by Mr Farage to the Mail Online, officials said closing his accounts could not be justified on the basis of his wealth as his “economic contribution” was “sufficient to retain on a commercial basis”.
The 40-page document showed the bank raised concerns Mr Farage was “xenophobic and racist”, citing his having retweeted a Ricky Gervais joke and his friendship with Novak Djokovic.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the former Ukip leader said: “I believe Coutts targeted me on personal and political grounds, for its report reads rather like a pre-trial brief drawn up by the prosecution in a case against a career criminal.”
He called for a BBC reporter to apologise for earlier reporting that his accounts were shut because of a lack of money, and not his political views.
Mr Farage said: “Will Simon Jack and BBC News be apologising for their reporting on this story?
“The BBC must correct their original story about me. I will be making a complaint.”
In a statement, Coutts said: “Our ability to respond is restricted by our obligations of client confidentiality.
“Decisions to close accounts are not taken lightly and take into account a number of factors including commercial viability, reputational considerations, and legal and regulatory requirements.”
But as well as the PM and home secretary, the bank came under fire from energy secretary Grant Shapps, who said the closure of Mr Farage’s accounts was “absolutely disgraceful”.
He told Sky News: “I don’t have to agree with everything Nigel Farage says to recognise that free speech is a very important part of our domestic life.
“What has happened with some of these banks through this regime, which is known as the PEP regime, or politically exposed people, is really actually scandalous.
“People shouldn’t have their bank accounts closed because of their political or any other view. And banks shouldn’t be refusing to open accounts on that basis as well.
“Yet there is a very long-running problem within this country where banks are misapplying the guidance and rules. And not just closing accounts, but refusing to open them in the first place, and that should not be the case.”
Former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said he felt “unease” at the “cancellation” of Mr Farage by Coutts. And he called for Mr Sunak to use the government’s shareholding to force NatWest to launch an inquiry into the closure.
Former home secretary Priti Patel said Mr Farage’s account closure was a “disgraceful scandal”.
Mr Farage went on to warn there is a danger of the UK moving towards a “Chinese-style social credit system”.
On Wednesday morning he released 40 pages of documents that he obtained after making a subject access request to Coutts.
Mr Farage said: “It is a document that is full of every negative thing that has ever been said about me, it is prejudicial in a way that only the metropolitan elite can do.”
He added: “I think that the march of woke corporatism needs to be checked and if it is not then we will finish up with a Chinese-style social credit system.
“Only those with acceptable views will be able to participate fully in society. I am effectively de-banked. How do I pay my gas bill? What have I done wrong? I haven’t broken the law. I happen to have an opinion on issues that is more popular outside the M25 than it is in inner London postcodes.”
