Nigel Farage demands records of NatWest’s Alison Rose over Coutts account closure

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Nigel Farage has requested further documents from NatWest, the UK taxpayer-backed lender, to unearth whether chief executive Dame Alison Rose had any involvement in the decision to close his bank accounts, warning that “all options are on the table”.

The former leader of the UK Independence and Brexit parties released a 40-page dossier earlier this week claiming that Coutts, the high-end private bank owned by NatWest, dropped Farage as a customer in part because of his political views that were “at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation”, according to one of the memos.

But Farage, who is a presenter on GB News, said on the channel on Thursday night that he had filed another subject access request to NatWest “looking for any personal correspondence, Dame Rose, that concerns me. So in 30 days’ time, we’ll know the absolute truth.”

Farage told the Financial Times on Friday: “The SAR [subject access request] that has just gone into NatWest is to see if Alison Rose’s fingerprints are anywhere near this — if so, there will be hell to pay.”

He added: “If she has behaved in that way, then — and only then — would her position become wholly untenable.”

The nature of the account closure has triggered a political backlash over Farage’s treatment by NatWest, whose biggest shareholder is the UK government following the bank’s bailout during the 2008 financial crisis. The bank’s decision has attracted the scrutiny of the UK financial regulator and prompted the Treasury to push out measures around steps lenders must take when they close customer accounts, which the government says will protect freedom of expression.

Asked if he was considering legal action against the bank, Farage said: “All options are on the table.” However, he said he first wanted to fully establish the facts of what had happened.

The bank has not clarified whether Rose was personally involved in the decision. NatWest declined to comment on Farage’s second SAR.

On Thursday, Rose wrote to Farage to apologise for the “deeply inappropriate comments about yourself” made in the memo for the bank’s wealth committee. “Your experience, highlighted in recent days, has shown we need to also put our own processes under scrutiny too.

“I believe very strongly that freedom of expression and access to banking are fundamental to our society,” Rose added. “I fully understand yours and the public’s concern that the processes for bank account closure are not sufficiently transparent.”

However, Farage told the FT he was surprised that Rose did not offer to reinstate his Coutts accounts in her letter of apology, and instead repeated the offer of a NatWest account as an alternative.

Coutts — known for its wealthy clientele including King Charles — notably requires customers to have at least £3mn in savings, or £1mn in borrowings or investments. NatWest does not share such a threshold.

Farage said the NatWest personal account does not offer him the currency services he needs — he earns money from media and speaking roles in other countries including the US — and he is not sure if Rose is offering him a business account at NatWest.

NatWest said it has offered him both a personal and a business account.

“It’s all very odd,” said Farage. “You would have thought that if she wanted peace she might have said: “If you want to stay at Coutts, you can.”

Additional reporting by Robert Smith in London