Shades of Chinese Communist Party Social Credit: Brexit leader Nigel Farage had his bank account withdrawn at the end of June, as he revealed in a video. Now Farage has revealed the reason: According to the “Stasi-esque” file Coutt’s bench put together on him, he was targeted for his political views, including alleged “racism,” “Brexit,” and interviewing vax skeptic top tennis star Novak Djokovic.
Write in the Daily telegramFarage says his “fate was sealed” at a meeting of the bank’s “wealth-reputation risk committee” on Nov. 17, 2022. I know this because I got the 36-page Stasi-esque surveillance report through a subject access request given that was used during that meeting to justify this extraordinary action. This report is frankly shocking.”
Stasi-style surveillance report
Contrary to the claims made by the BBC and the Financial Times about Farage’s account fall below the threshold of the bankthe report states several times that its “economic contribution” is sound and its resources are “sufficient to sustain on a commercial basis,” Farage writes.
“It even recognizes that I make a positive net financial contribution to the bank. Anyone at Coutts who thought it was smart to tell friendly media outlets outright lies about me has seriously misjudged the situation.
Farage believes his bank attacked him on personal and political grounds. “The report reads more like a preliminary deed drawn up by the prosecutor in a case against a professional criminal. Monthly press checks were performed on me. My social media accounts were monitored. Anything deemed “problematic” was included. I was being watched.”
Monthly press checks were performed on him
This report proves that any customer who holds “even vaguely conservative views” will be treated with contempt at Coutts Bank, Farage writes. “My friendship with the family by Novak Djokovic, who was steadfast in his belief that he should have the freedom to choose whether to receive the Covid vaccine, is listed on the charge sheet. So is my retweet of a Ricky Gervais joke and my conviction to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. What do these things have to do with my bank account?”
Read the entire 40-page bank file on Nigel Farage.
Farage calls the tone of the report “accusatory and reproachful.” He notes that “Brexit” is mentioned 86 times and “Russia” 144 times. The report also echoes defamatory comments by Labor MP Sir Chris Bryant that Farage received £548,573 “from the Russian state”, he notes.
“I have always said that after Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory in America in 2016, the globalist elite worked hard to undermine the vanguard of everything that threatened the status quo. In this it was urged by the mainstream media in Britain and America,” he writes.
Farage was “appalled” to be labeled “racist and xenophobic”.
He believes “this says more about the mindset of the upper middle class working in London’s banking industry than it does about me. The truth is,” notes Farage, “that in recent years most public and private institutions have been captured by a new brand of extreme liberalism that, ironically, is highly illiberal.”
The Coutts file criticizes their high profile client Farage for “not matching [Coutts’s] views” and suggests he should be barred “because I don’t support Coutts’ diversity, policies and ‘purpose’, as if Britain were a political regime and I was a dissident,” Farage accuses.
“What should any of us think of this word ‘goal’?” asks Farage, since a bank’s purpose is presumably “to act with integrity and make a profit for shareholders.” He notes that Coutts’ largest shareholder is the UK state, which owns 38.6% of Royal Bank of Scotland, to which Coutts belongs, along with major UK bank NatWest with its 19 million customers.
10 other banks refused Farage
Farage points out that “taxpayers saved the banks after the greed and stupidity of their executives in 2008. Instead of making sure we get decent returns, banks like Coutts are busy political games. Their contempt for the public knows no bounds.”
Farage notes that he is “the first public figure to understand the behavior of our banking in this way. Clearly Coutts thought it could work its way out of my “de-banking” and maybe even show up with an improved image. Not this time.” He compares the scandal over his Coutts account to the Bud Light scandal in America who had to learn the hard way: “Go wake, go broke”.
Farage has been denied an account by 10 other banks, he notes. “There is now little or no prospect of me having a UK bank account again. Fortunately, in the 21st century, there are other ways to receive and make payments through fintech companies. It’s still not a bank account, but I will survive.”
“You could be next.”
However, the Coutts scandal is “not just about mem,” he notes. “You could be next.”
UK credit rating agency Refinitiv may “investigate social media posts posted by either of us on Facebook or elsewhere,” Farage writes. “If this situation is left unchecked, we will sleepwalk into a China-style social credit system where only those with the ‘right’ views are allowed to fully participate in society.”
As for Coutts, Farage says he is “extremely angry” with them – “and I will consult with my lawyers to decide what action is appropriate.”
