Should Nigel Farage lose his bank account just because he’s an awful person?
Many might agree that Nigel Farage is a “xenophobic grifter” — but do you want to live in a world where banks secretly judge your morality?
For more than a decade, Nigel Farage has moaned about an establishment plot against him. So you can understand why, after crying wolf so often, he was widely dismissed on the one occasion he might have been right.
Few would weep for a wealthy man, deemed insufficiently wealthy for an account at Coutts, the bank of choice for the profoundly minted. And that’s what multiple media reports claimed had happened to Farage.
But the former UKIP leader turned GB News frontman was convinced he’d been targeted for his political views — and for once he might have a point.
Farage has released a lengthy document he says he obtained from the bank after submitting a formal request, which suggests Coutts did want to drop him because of his views, and the company he keeps.
The report, apparently prepared for the bank’s “reputational risk committee”, says Farage is considered by many to be a “disingenuous grifter”, with “xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views”, labels that Farage has called an “appalling slur.”
The document cites his comments on Brexit, his friendship with Donald Trump, and even controversial tweets he has liked or retweeted.
Keeping Farage as a customer would, said the document, be “at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation.”
Coutts, while refusing to comment on specific cases, has said that “reputational considerations” are part of its process when deciding whether to close an account.
Farage was not being denied access to banking — he was offered accounts at NatWest, which owns Coutts, suggesting corporate morality only stretches so far.
Unsurprisingly, the hard right has seized on the whole affair as evidence of a “woke plot”. The Home Secretary, no stranger to comments perceived by many as xenophobic, extrapolates a wider conspiracy.
No doubt, an army of Mail and Telegraph readers will submit their own requests to find out what their bank thinks of them. Many will be secretly disappointed to find out they never think of them at all.
But when the Prime Minister, no friend of Nigel Farage, is supporting him, you have to wonder whether — for once — he might have a point.
Honestly, if you walked down pretty much any street in Britain it wouldn’t take long to find someone who’d agree with a description of Nigel Farage as a xenophobic grifter.
But it is possible to view Farage as a ludicrous, and often wilfully offensive blowhard, while also thinking it’s a bit rich for a bank to appoint itself a moral arbiter, especially one operating in secret.
Banks are, of course, private businesses, free to choose whose custom to accept. NatWest, which is 39% state-owned, is not obliged to welcome everyone without question. But should its judgement be based on your finances, or a wider, subjective appraisal of your morality?
Even if you believe Coutts was right to want rid of Nigel Farage, why not be honest about it? Why tell journalists he failed the rich person’s test if there’s a paper trail suggesting that’s not true? If you seek the moral high ground, it’s probably best not to do so while misleading people.
Inevitably comparisons will be drawn with China’s social credit system — a kind of Experian on steroids. Donate to a charity, and your score might go up. Get caught jaywalking, and you might not be allowed to book a flight.
We’re already judged by our credit score — based on whether we pay our debts on time, and it’s doubtful we would accept a wider system that put a hard number on our social standing.
Nigel Farage is an easy target, and defending him under any circumstances is frankly a little painful. He has casually used the language of division, encouraging an army of half-witted xenophobes in his odious wake.
But freedom of speech includes the rights of idiots to spout nonsense to morons, as long as they do so within the law. What if, one day, the bank looks at your tweets and decides it doesn’t like you either?
