Nigel Farage Banks Account Closure: What's my view? 

UK banks act like a law unto themselves, they’ve quickly forgotten the UK taxpayers bailed them out in 2008, caused as much by their own incompetence as anything else. What a great industry to work in, act with impunity and if it all goes belly up get rescued by the people you were fleecing.

As we move to a cashless society then this is really frightening..its another tool of control...be a good boy, or else

If a bank is prepared to do this to someone in the public eye Then the rest of us have no hope

It’s not the fact that the bank closed his account that is worrying. It’s the fact that every other bank refused to open an account for him within a few days of his accounts being closed. Which obviously shows they are all in it together. If they can do it to him, they can do it to us all , that’s what is worrying!

they should not be allowed to do this without a court order

This is going on all over the country and has been accelerating over the last year. I have seen a few youtube videos from small political activists who experienced the same thing. One guy was a local activist who was campaigning to stop the government dumping asylum seekers in the hotels in his town because it was causing a crime wave and destroying the tourist industry. Low and behold his bank accounts got shut down, and then his wifes bank did the same to her. This is the next big paradigm of deplatforming ... literally shutting down peoples ability to operate as a functional member of society.

So there is not a SINGLE MP in the UK Parliament with the moral courage to put this matter before the Privileges Committee? What a shower of gutless wonders.

What is odd is so many other more dubious people in government haven't had the same treatment.

Outrageous imagine going a cashless society and they can close down your bank accounts if you don't agree with their ideology 😡

Definition of irony a bank closing an account on suspicion on money laundering, when they literally set aside money to pay fines annually for such nefarious activities. Clown world

"First they came for Nigel, and I didn't say anything. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me."

This is why it's important that people can post anonymously online. People will be too scared to criticize anything for fear of being destroyed.

Can't believe this could be allowed to happen!! 😡😡😡😡

Imagine bankers and banks being corrupt? Imagine banks and bankers stopping accounts, on behalf of governments and their backers, of those that don't tow their narrative? Didn't that happen to Canadas truckers - just saying.

Whilst banks may have concerns about something, it's draconian to implement such policies. It seems the banks are able to get away with anything.

What's sinister is that all the other banks won't give him an account either. This has nothing to do with whether you love or hate him, its about being tried and found guilty of something you know nothing about with no opportunity to defend yourself. Ombudsman services are a waste of space in my experience.

He has a right to full and frank disclosure and there should be no reason to persecute his family members.

'In a society where the State is the sole employer, opposition means death by starvation.' attr. to Leon Trotsky.

Ultimately this is deeply concerning. It stinks to high heaven of a conspiracy within the world of finance to financially "cancel" Mr Farage. There ought to be some mechanism where banks need to show (confidentially of course) evidence to the financial Ombudsman backing up their decision before it can be enacted.

Having recently lost my purse with all my bank cards etc, i was left with no way of paying for anything, and was worried that if my purse had found it's way into the wrong hands all sorts of issues such as identity theft could arrise sooner or later. Thankfully a friend helped me out until i could go to my bank for some cash until new cards arrived. My bank were for once very understanding and gave me the following advice. Never carry all your cards with you, leave one in a safe place as a back up, keep some cash seperate from your purse / wallet so that you can pay to get home etc. And the most important one, keep a check on your credit score incase someone uses your details to obtain credit. Not that i am a supporter of Nigel Farage, but i can understand what he must be going through, and it is not a pleasant place to be.

So basically laws that allow banks to have a grudge against you and act without you having any legal address...

So in effect guilty without trial. No opportunity to examine and/or challenge the evidence. No consideration by an impartial judge. Just a whim of the bank can close down businesses and cause individuals severe inconvenience and hardship. What a wonderful society we have become. This has to be challenged.

To avoid being “politically exposed”, you would have to avoid being in politics, or journalism, or, well... law.

If banks are deactivating people’s accounts with no redress then everyone’s account could be at risk. To that end, we as taxpayers, should ensure that the Government do not, under any circumstances, provide any taxpayer funded bail out for any UK bank. If they are making their customers accountable then the customers should hold the banks accountable.

Unrestricted bank power. They need to have a higher authority outside the bank to watchdog them.

Basically what BBB was saying is that the Banks do not need any direct evidence of wrong doing by NF, just that somehow, by some personal, or less than personal, association there could be! Go back 10 years and Banks/similar institutions would never dream of doing this. You'd keep your bank account even if you were a criminal. It's so obvious that this is a personal attack on NF. It's disgraceful.

This happened to me in Norway. I live in the UK and out of the blue I was told I had to show my face in the local branch with my passport, even if I had an account in ghat bank for almost 20 years and I’m sure I gave ID when I opened the account. Still they said they did not have my ID on record so it was needed. This was under Covid and it was not even possible to fly over from UK to Norway (I live in UK). I called the bank and told them this. They still insisted but had no answer how I could do this when it was a ban on travel in place. So they just sent me a letter to say they had closed my account, and put a “closing fee” on it so the money I had there was just gone. The year after I could open the account again as I was able to travel to Norway but it was a major headache as I have properties in Norway and I needed to pay things of course so had to rely on family. Banks have been instructed from “above” on these matters, it’s nothing they can do. Wait for it to get worse!

This whole situation happened to my 25yr old son, works in a bakery, not involved in politics. He got another Bank but the way he was dealt with is disgusting. Commercial decisions is not an explanation. Hiding behind words. Big Banks don’t care. Laws should be made to protect us from this type of Bank behaviour. Another nail in the Banking coffin.

The bank should now be required to submit a suspicious activity report (SAR) if they have not already done so and then Nigel Farrage should have the right to apply for “clearance” from the National Crime Agency.

Are they going to close down the bank accounts of a blue chip company because some of their customers "may" be involved in crime ? Eh ? That doesn't make the slightest sense at all !

People need to start a rush on that particular banking group. If they do this to him, WE ARE ALL NEXT ON THE FIRING LINE.

This is a useful wake up call to many in Britain, but this happens on a daily basis to people who dont have a platform like Farage does. Canadian Truckers being a recent example.

The greatest issue is that we have let this happen when forced to have a bank account to be payed for work or to pay taxes. We let this happen over the years. Under what law were we required to have a bank account to be payed?

How can we become a cashless society, if people can be denied a bank account? People could literally starve to death, if they didn't have access to a bank account, and shops won't accept cash.

Next: Elon Musk buys “prestigious banking group, reactivates Nigel’s accounts” 😂

This blacklisting practice of customers by banks, payment services, telecom companies, social media companies, etc, has been happening for several years in the UK, USA, Canada and possibly other countries too. Anyone who practises activities or expresses views against the supposedly required societal narrative is a potential target, including ordinary people. It commonly happens to sex workers, including adult movie stars, just because they're sex workers, it also happens to people who commonly express conservative views and it also happened to the Canadian truck drivers protesting against C-19 restrictions.

Surely this goes against his human rights. You cannot survive today without a bank account. Disgraceful and a very worrying sign of things to come.

There are numerous scandals and the accounts of retired police officers that make it evident that business of the banks largely revolves around money laundering. The fines the banks get for money laundering are trivial in comparison to the gains involved in laundering money and largely act as a kick back to the political classes.

When digital cash becomes a reality we won’t be able to say we weren’t warned of the consequences.

I bet this didn't happen to Blair, despite his phoney war.

Today, a mainstream newspaper revealed that a building society had closed the account of a customer who had complained about the pride flag. Defending that they had the right to close accounts on the grounds of someone being rude or discriminatory, regardless of where that behaviour took place. Plus people have been barred from getting a bank account from any other business. Setting a dangerous precedence where private companies are compelling us all to speech codes or face being unable to function in society.

Time to retaliate against the banks and their interests. At some point their will be a tipping point where the outcome will be them or us. They could not care less about us, the sentiment is mutual.

I understand your explanation but it wouldn't apply to his family account closures. This is dirty work and needs to be stopped immediately!

A taste of what's coming to anyone the moment they get rid of cash in favour of digital currency.

Big business is in control and not the people or our politicians.

If this happens in Australia, I will be calling for that bank to lose its “government guarantee” as this is undemocratic

This is outrageous, to cancel your account and not give you a reason.

There now needs to be some kind of law that makes the bank explain the exact reasons why they are closing an account instead of them just saying 'for commercial' reasons

I think this stems from Chris Bryant alleging in parliament that Farage received money from Russia, which Farage denies and notedly Bryant has not stated that same allegation outside of parliament for which I am sure there would be legal ramifications.

I had this done to me over 20 years ago. I owed an agency around a grand unbeknown to me at the time and the Govt agency went straight to my bank and they decided on my behalf to pay it back in full then they took the money I owed out of my own personal account straight away, I had no idea until I went in to collect my pay and there was zero coin in there. During that process I had no idea I owed money let alone the bank deciding to pay them back without my permission because if I had of known I would have paid the debt. So what happened after that was that I was told I owed the agency money and they paid it back for me and I was totally pissed because no.1 I didn't know I owed anybody anything, no.2 I didn't get told the bank paid it back, no.3 I had no money to feed my kids for 2 weeks and plus I was in for one last shock, the bastards closed my bank account on me and transfered my next paycheck to another bank, a let's just say it was a govt banking system that deals with the military, police corps ect. I was so confused because they really treated me like shit and like a dirty criminal. I also remember my credit was destroyed before I even owned a credit card too. I couldn't believe it!! After it was said and done and you see I lived in a well established town at the time and just about knew everyone in town as you do and so I kicked up a stink big time because of my local bank branch and my towns people rallied behind me and basically a lot of them closed their accounts because if I'm going to be treated like that then they didn't want the same fate happening to them either and because they rallied behind me the local branch had to close it's doors, good riddance bank, that's what you get for screwing with the little people. BTW, my brother is a corporate barrester and you should of seen the look on the managers faces when I towed him along to a face to face show down and my brother made mince meat out of them!! They weren't expecting me to fight back. After that fiasco, I learned that I wasn't the only one, there were many more who had the same thing happen to them at the same branch!!

I worked inside a bank for a while recently. Even during this stint, it became increasingly concerning as to how extensive the review and meddling was in terms of people and their banking. And that's before the out of control woke loony tunes I saw while inside. While I understand the money laundering quandry, it is fundamentally a wrong to close down people's accounts while having at best spurious reasons. Its not good enough to wreck someone's life - or at a minimum - derail them for a time - because of some 6 degree separation. And I will be further blunt about people in the public eye. This was cancellation. And everyone knows it.

Just heard today a Christian Charity has just had their bank account cancelled. So what on earth could they have done wrong???

Don’t say can’t believe this happened. Many things going to happen if you don’t stand up for each others rights.

All the more reason we can NEVER go cashless.

Given that a bank account is essential for one to live in this country then surely there needs to be some judicial oversight into this. If any bank simply says it’s a commercial decision then it puts someone in an impossible position of trying to defend their interests. In this specific case, as a observer I can’t imagine what’s changed as NF seems to have been associated with the same people and causes for years.

The government has known this was going on for years and chose not to act.

This needs addressing promptly because to live your life as decreed by the HRA you need the essentials of water, food, shelter, aaaaaand in this day and age, a bank account.

So the banks should be terminating the accounts of a lot of MP's 😂

If only we had notes and coins to represent money and we kept it safe for ourselves, and kept using it as much as possible :)

This is appalling a judge & courts should decide this

Remember what happened, a few months ago, to 10s of thousands of people in the northern rural area of China when the bank was suspected of abuse? Their accounts were all blocked, resulting in no money or access to machines, banks or accounts to all of their customers and no support or help at all?

Come on BBB the whole system is a cesspit!

So how do they return Nigel’s net £ balance to him? Bags of five pound notes?!

40 years ago, when working for a bank and doing my exams, we were taught that the relationship of a bank to a customer is that of an agent. Increasingly, these days, banks are acting as agents of the government, happy to shaft their customers for a quiet life and peerages for their bosses.

This is the scariest thing yet to hit this country. Never thought I would see the day.

"Being treated fairly" is a pretty broad brush and totally open to interpretation. The banks have essentially made a monopoly for themselves compared to the 80's when it was completely possible to get by without a bank account at all. Back then, cash in hand jobs were very popular and you got your paypacket in a brown envelope every week. Nowadays, everything is online banking and it is not possible to work unless you have an account. The rules should be very strict around account closures for this reason and only fraud should be able to close your account following a court case and oversight by a judge.

So normally I agree and respect your opinions. On this however I have to totally disagree. Nigel Farage has a legal route open to him, he can sue the banking group for discrimination. The banking group in question would have to present their reasoning behind the decision to close his accounts. Additionally Nigel could also force as part of the same case all other banks that have refused him an account to provide evidence that justifies their refusal. If as we all know deep down that their actions are unlawful and are in fact politically motivated then further investigation would be needed to discover and determine if there has been any coordination, and if so by whom. This case would cost millions but if Nigel wins he could blow the lid off the political corruption at the heart of our financial system and would rock the political establishment to the core. I'd be happy to donate to the cause!

The issue here is not about scams but the right to have a bank account which you need as an essential service. When the government forces us to go digital which they will it will become even more important. It looks more and more like a political witch hunt against anyone who dares to disagree with big brother. The law needs to change with a bank account being a right and a system that allows redress against the banks if they want to close an account. It is no surprise that part of this problem is down to stupid rules which came out of Brussels. Effectively we have guilt by association and punishment without committing a crime it is not acceptable in a democracy.

You missed out that not only have the bank attacked nigel but his family members too

It also happened to Lawrence Fox’s organization. The real issue. What will the British citizens do. They are next.

Control the money, control the food, control the people….🇦🇺

Will ALL mp's be having their bank accounts closed as most ministers will have had meetings with dodgy persons in the past (in my opinion)?

✨_"He who does not defends his rights, has none!"_ ✨ - *Roman Legal Axiom.*

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Now where's my smallest violin?

Banking looks a complete risk now to me, bail ins and bank closures, inquisitions to withdraw your own money! , bank account closures ( Nigel is not the first I’ve heard of in this past year) it’s extremely unsettling

Nigel is a millionaire and they did this to him. If they can do it to him they can do it to anyone that they consider to have the wrong opinions.

Banks are like Schools they creep into areas where its none of thier buisness.

About 8 years ago i had a bank account closed because i refused an overdraft .When i went to another bank i had to have an overdraft at least four direct debits and agree to have my wages paid in permanently.When i got ill i was on sick pay and because my wages were lower they called me in and gave me a WARNING.

Seems like several people have come forward claiming that their bank did the same to them.

I bet a journalist from the BBC will be reporting on this - not

ok, so what about the 6 other banks that wont take him? what about his family that also had their accounts cancelled. im pretty sure this is unfair treatment to go the financial authority

I was told the same thing a couple of years ago. I'm vocal but not known. Can't wait for him to sue and make a fortune.🤑

Happened to Laura Towler too. She didn't even get notification. It's an act of war.

So legally the bank can close your accounts and doesn't even have to give a reason. I'm sure that isn't being abused?????????????

I think he went on to explain that he had approached seven other banks and they had all declined his business, which adds some context to the perhaps emotional comments about leaving the UK. He then went on to explain some EU legislation that is part of UK law relating to politically active people and their supposed links to corruption, in conjunction with comments made on the floor of the House regarding unsubstantiated allegations about Russian money. Which perhaps adds some context to the decision.

Nigel Farage fell below the financial threshold required to hold an account at Coutts, the prestigious private bank for wealthy customers the BBC has been told. It also understood that he was offered a normal account at Natwest which owns Coutts. People familiar....

Chris Bryant has got previous for his false accusations: Christopher Chandler, was accused by Bryant of Money Laundering. He later printed a retraction, but protected himself from any Defamation or Libel action using Parliamentary Privilege.

I think it has something to do with the false accusation that Nigel received money from Russia, based presumably on the argument that banks are obliged to close accounts of anyone "suspected" of wrongdoing, throwing the burden of proof of innocence to Nigel. Nigel may well be able to restore his account eventually, at the cost of tremendous inconvenience he has to suffer meanwhile. This is nothing short of "financial harassment".

if it turns out the "tipping off" rule was used maliciously as an attack, what legal remedy is there for that? It sounds like the idea weapon to use against someone you don't like, as you can't even appeal against something which you can't be told about.

Following Chris Brian's slanderous remarks about Nigel Farage the Kangaroo Court should be convened to investigate this so that Chris Bryant presents his evidence

Omg my bank’s done the same thing to me!! Said it’s a business decision and they can’t tell me why they’re closing my account!

They must be made accountable for this, they must be made to justify this kind of thing. Laws need changing because removing your ability to function in society with having to give a reason is unjust.

My best guess is that Nigel is speaking against the Government and he's being punished. This should be a warning to everyone to reject a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) at all costs, because this could become the norm.

A hotelier can be imprisoned for refusing a gay couple a bed for the night but a banker can make you a non-person and not face prosecution at all.

Meanwhile Russian Oligarchs and their friends nefarious activities go unnoticed by our beloved banks.

This might be a commercial decision but unless we are seen as commercial entities, that makes no difference to how this affects a human being. This is the action of a cruel and calculating psychopath, especially considering that banks have "human rights" now.

It is political and a disgrace.

If you actually are a barrister you must be aware that the judiciary in this country is entirely class orientated. The saying’ you get a better class of justice, the richer you are’ has always been the case, and is certainly still the case. The whole system needs a complete overhaul to make it fairer for ‘everyone’! Banks close accounts daily, especially when they haven’t been used for a period. I had an account closed with only pence in it for that reason. A friend had her account closed with thousands still in it as she was working abroad, she is now having to fight to get that money back! That is theft in my book, but large institutions seem to be above the law…..for the above reasons!

People just don't know what they are doing when it comes to banks!

It must be a valid human right to have a bank account if that is the way money is moved around. If something is illegal then let the courts sort it out. Depriving someone of a means to financially exist is wrong. A bank needs setting up for people to continue there life, pending any investigations until full restoration is agreed.