Sunak: Banks must not cancel their customers
BANKS should not close customers’ accounts because they disagree with their views, Rishi Sunak warned last night.
The Prime Minister stressed that the right to free speech had to be respected, and divisive views were no excuse for blocking people.
He was responding to reports of a string of high-profile and often outspoken figures including Nigel Farage having their accounts shut down.
It came as a whistleblower claimed that banks are being put under pressure by activists to kick out any ‘anti-woke’ clients.
Mr Sunak said: ‘The Chancellor has been very clear about this and spoken to the regulator.
‘We have to respect people’s right to free speech and that should not be an excuse to close anyone’s account and that’s not what we would expect.’ The PM’s intervention came after warnings from senior MPs about the ‘chilling effect’ that closing accounts will have on free speech.
Former chancellor Sajid Javid last night urged the Government to ‘act on this immediately’, while former Cabinet minister Dame Andrea Leadsom called on regulators to look at the issue as a ‘matter of urgency’. It emerged yesterday that those who had their accounts closed included Dr Lesley Sawers, the Equalities and Human Rights Commissioner for Scotland since 2016, a fathers’ rights charity and a former UKIP council leader.
Dr Sawers’ husband, William McKechnie, accused the Royal Bank of Scotland of ‘discriminating against people because of their jobs’, adding: ‘Women’s rights issues are very controversial at the moment. There is clearly a thread here.’
One Santander employee told the Mail that the bank has been ‘policing the views of their customers’.
He said a woman was sent a warning letter threatening to close her account after she expressed ‘ her view on identity politics’.
Banks are facing a Treasury investigation into claims they are closing customers’ accounts because they do not like their views on politics or Brexit. The renewed focus on the issue came after Mr Farage, the former Ukip leader, claimed he was facing ‘serious political persecution’ when prestigious private bank Coutts closed his account.
Mr Javid told LBC yesterday: ‘A bank has no right to close accounts solely because they disagree with a customer’s lawfully expressed views... and I think the Government should act on this immediately and ban this practice.’
And Dame Andrea added: ‘It is a potentially sinister attempt to prediversity
‘Chilling effect on free speech’
vent free speech and it’s right that regulators are looking at it as a matter of urgency.’
Anglo-Russian socialite Countess Alexandra Tolstoy also had her NatWest accounts closed without explanation. Her former partner and the father of her three children is Sergei Pugachev, a Russian oligarch with links to Vladimir Putin.
But they separated in 2016 and Lady Tolstoy, a UK citizen, said she has ‘ not received a penny’ since then. ‘ It is absolutely extraordinary that this is happening in this country. I have no idea what I’m being accused of... maybe it’s my name.’
A NatWest spokesman told The Daily Telegraph it could not comment on the specifics of the case.
Yesterday it was also revealed that HSBC, Barclays, NatWest, Santander and TSB are members of schemes run by Stonewall, according to the Telegraph.
It has raised questions about the accounts of figures with gendercritical views being shut down.
Meanwhile it has emerged that NatWest offers staff who identify as non-binary – neither solely male nor female – double-sided work passes so they can ‘present in masculine and feminine expression’.