Farage blames ‘woke capitalism’ for his row with Coutts, but banks aren’t woke. Their obsession is profits

‘Coutts – an elitist institution if ever there was one – has made a laughable attempt to brand itself as inclusive.’ Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

There are no branches of Coutts in Sheffield Hallam, Mid-Bedfordshire and Swansea East. In fact, there are no branches of any bank in these and the 14 other parliamentary constituencies that have been at the sharp end of a mass closure programme in the past decade. In all, there have been almost 6,000 branches shut since 2015 and the NatWest Group – the owners of Coutts – has closed more than any other bank.

So the first thing to say about the high-profile row that led to the resignation of Alison Rose, the chief executive of NatWest, is that Nigel Farage is not the only account holder to be debanked. He is simply more famous than your average NatWest customer living in Reading West or Colne Valley.