EVERY once in a while hands are wrung over the great unbanked – what can be done for those poor folk who are so unappealing to the banking industry that they can’t get an account?
In a development that owes little to common sense and much to hubris, those people turn out to include Nigel Farage.
Coutts might have legitimate reasons for no longer wanting to extend him a mortgage, but the clear motivation for closing his account was that they just don’t like the cut of his jib.
This is a huge misjudgement on so many levels and it makes life awkward for Alison Rose, the boss of Coutts parent NatWest.
For one, Coutts, founded in 1692 had a snob appeal based on its commitment to privacy. The Queen was supposed to bank with Coutts, but it would never be so crass as to confirm this fact.
If it had just kept quiet, no one would have known who Nigel Farage banks with, or cared less. Instead it chose a fight with a man who picks them for a living. For the rest of us, awkward issues are raised. Does my bank want to know how I vote? My views on abortion? If I shower regularly?
Rishi Sunak probably regards Farage as one of his many pains in the neck.
And NatWest is a vital cog in how he hopes to rebuild the economy ahead of an election he already looks like he has lost.
Even he has come out in support of Farage and against NatWest. “This is wrong,” he said. “No one should be barred from using basic services for their political views.”
This is the same as saying that you can’t have free speech only for people you agree with. A basic point that Coutts apparently has to learn.
