The BBC has amended a story about the closure of Nigel Farage’s Coutts bank account after he found new evidence that suggested the article did not show the whole picture.
The broadcaster reported earlier this month that the private bank, which is marketed at the super-wealthy, had closed the former Ukip leader’s account because he was no longer sufficiently wealthy to hold one.
Its headline read “Nigel Farage bank account shut for falling below wealth limit,” while the text of the story said this was what the BBC had “been told” – usually meaning the claim was from a source whose anonymity the broadcaster has chosen to protect.
It has now explicitly attributed that claim to an anonymous source in the headline as well.
The story mentioned that Farage believed his account had been shut down for political reasons. But, it said: “People familiar with Coutts’ move said it was a ‘commercial’ decision.” The BBC quoted the anonymous source as saying: “The criteria for holding a Coutts account are clear from the bank’s website,” adding that Coutts “requires its customers to borrow or invest at least £1m with the bank or hold £3m in savings”.
The BBC has been criticised by Farage and his supporters over its reporting. The politician initially focused on the political considerations he said were behind Coutts’ decision to shut his account, while the BBC’s subsequent story shifted the spotlight on to his financial affairs.
Farage later obtained evidence that suggested both factors were considered by the bank’s bosses.
The politician said documents released to him by the bank under data protection laws showed senior staff had taken into account his “xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views”, as well as the risk to the organisation’s own reputation by dealing with him, alongside an assessment of his adherence to its wealth criteria when deciding to close his accounts.
The former Ukip leader said he was lodging a formal complaint over the BBC’s reporting. The broadcaster’s business editor, Simon Jack, tweeted that the headline in his original story had been “clarified” and an update posted. “It should have been clearer at the top that the reason for Mr Farage’s account being closed was commercial – was what a source told the BBC. That has been corrected.”
A note placed on the story on Thursday read: “Since this article was published, Nigel Farage submitted a subject access request to Coutts bank and obtained a report from the bank’s reputational risk committee.
“While it mentioned commercial considerations, the document also said the committee did not think continuing to have Mr Farage as a client was ‘compatible with Coutts given his publicly-stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation’. We have amended this article’s headline to make clear that the details about the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account came from a source.”
The changes came a day after the boss of NatWest Group, which owns Coutts, apologised to Farage for “deeply inappropriate comments” made about him in the papers he cited, saying she was “commissioning a full review of the Coutts processes” on bank account closures. Dame Alison Rose said: “No individual should have to read such comments and I apologise to Mr Farage for this.”
