The British leftist news website The Canary has claimed that it has been debanked by Lloyds without explanation and as a result has been left with “barely any funds” to operate.
On Tuesday, the website said that after being with Lloyds for nearly a decade, the bank has decided to shut down its financial relationship with The Canary and is currently “withholding a substantial amount” of the left-wing news outlet’s money to such an extent that the firm does not have enough cash to meet payroll.
The Corbynite publication said: “Lloyds has not explained why it has taken this action. Despite multiple communications from us, the bank has not been forthcoming with its reasoning.
“The Canary is now in a financially precarious situation. We do not know when our money that Lloyds is holding will be returned. Moreover, we do not know how it will affect our ability to get another bank account in the future.”
The site said that, while it is unaware of the reason for its account being shut down at Lloyds, it suggested it may have been due to its anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian stance.
“It is an outrage that the Canary has been unceremoniously dropped into financial instability with no notice or explanation from Lloyds,” the editors said.
The outlet further warned that its debanking was a threat to independent media throughout the country, “whereby you can be potentially ruined without recourse by banking giants like Lloyds.”
Despite its hard-left bent, the site garnered support from some on the right in the wake of the debanking, including the Free Speech Union (FSU), whose PayPal accounts were frozen in 2022 until public pressure forced the company to reverse its decision.
Remarking on the alleged action by Lloyds, the FSU said: “Debanking is one of the most pernicious forms of cancellation that an individual or organisation can face — something the FSU is only too familiar with.
“Lloyds has provided no explanation for its decision and has not told The Canary when its funds will be returned. We are in contact with The Canary and stand ready to help.”
However, others were less sympathetic given the publication’s failure to cover the debanking of prominent figures on the right, including Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who had his account at Coutts shut down in 2023 over his political views.
Some also noted The Canary’s history of downplaying cancel culture, including in a 2020 article in which it was described as a “myth” alongside the idea that the “political right is under siege.”
This came despite The Canary previously facing cancel culture itself from other left-wing activists in Britain, notably from Stop Funding Fake News (SFFN), a pro-censorship group reportedly funded by the Labour Together think tank, which was developed by the former chief of staff to Prime Minsiter Sir Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney.
According to South African journalist Paul Holden, SFFN targeted The Canary in a bid to purge the British left of the hard-left faction loyal to former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who himself was ousted from his party by the Starmer regime. To achieve its ends, the pro-censorship group waged a campaign of targeting advertisers, pressuring them to withdraw their money from sites like The Canary.
Although The Canary has attempted to downplay the cancel culture directed toward the right, the very same campaign group was found by Holden to have sought to demonitize Breitbart News, including by pressuring the UK government to withdraw its advertising on Breitbart and other right-leaning sites.
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