Debanking campaigner, Brexit pioneer, and Reform UK leader Nigel announced his party now has a bank account, a modern day basic that had hitherto proven impossible in Britain’s cancel-culture infused financial sector.
Nigel Farage, who led a campaign against woke banking after he was personally zero-notice debanked in 2023 and was unable to find another bank willing to hold his money, announced Reform UK has now managed to open a bank account of its own.
Bloomberg News notes the new account is with high street bank Lloyds, and the fact this institution has taken on Reform shows the degree to which the British establishment has accepted that Farage and Reform UK have been brought in from the cold into the mainstream.
Until now Reform UK had relied on niche, boutique fund management to handle its funds, it stated.
While opening a bank account may seem a minor development, debanking has become a major issue in the United Kingdom, with banking houses using government money rules as a pretext to shut down thousands of accounts with only the slightest pretext. As well as impacting political figures and organisations, defence firms have been debanked for ESG, and even small businesses have been targeted simply for dealing in cash.
Mr Farage hailed the development, stating: “this is an important moment for Reform UK. It shows just how far we have come as a party and we look forward to a fruitful and positive partnership with Lloyds”.
The debanking of Mr Farage in 2023 by Coutts, the wealth management division of the then partially state-owned Natwest group, became a major scandal and eventaully led to several top Natwest executives, including its CEO, resigning in disgrace. While the bank initially insisted closing Farage’s accounts was an innocent decision, leaks from within the bank revealed it had been a politically motivated decision to withdraw financial services from a political undesirable.
Memos from Natwest’s internal messenger system acquired by Mr Farage showed Natwest bankers had gloated and boasted to each other over having sucesfully debanked the Brexit leader. Messages claimed Farage was “vile”, “awful”, and a Russian asset.
One employee wrote: “Have you all seen Nigel Farage’s Twitter? No one will bank him now. Have we single-handedly driven [Farage] out of the country?”.
Mr Farage said at the time: “The establishment are trying to force me out of the UK by closing my bank accounts… If they can do it to me, they can do it to you too”. After it emerged bank boss Dame Alison Rose had personally leaked Farage’s personal information from the bank in a bid to smear him and secretly briefed journalists, her position became untenable and she was forced to resign.
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