The terrifying rise of ‘debanking’

Last week, former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage announced that his Coutts bank account of over 40 years had been closed against his will and without any real explanation. The motive might have been political, he speculated. Perhaps Coutts, the prestigious private bank for the wealthy, had taken exception to his support for Brexit. Farage went on to claim that nine other banks have refused his custom, too. This seemed like a potential case of what has become known as ‘debanking’ – that is, the practice of withholding banking services to individuals, because of the views they hold.

The BBC, however, was not convinced. It quickly tried to debunk Farage’s claims. This week, it claimed that Coutts’ decision to close his account was commercial, not ideological. Apparently, he did not have enough money in the account to meet the elite bank’s ‘wealth threshold’.

But this was not the clincher the BBC thought it was. Farage has since pointed out that his wealth levels have never been a problem before for Coutts. And the BBC has had to acknowledge that other Coutts customers have fallen below the wealth threshold but have been able to keep their accounts. ‘Clearly a lot of discretion [is] available to the bank’, Simon Jack, the BBC’s business editor, later conceded.

As it stands, we do not know exactly why Farage’s account was closed. But we do know that he is not the only one claiming to have been ‘debanked’. In fact, over the past week or so, numerous cases have emerged of people being denied access to financial services, seemingly on the basis of their political views. This has included activists, parents groups and even people with no political background at all.

Banks seem to be taking particular exception to opponents of wokeness. Shortly after Farage’s battle with Coutts went public, it was reported that Metro Bank had denied services to Our Duty, a gender-critical group. This association of 2,000 parents is trying to spread the message that the medical transitioning of children is harmful. The group’s founder claims that Metro Bank declined to open a business account for Our Duty, on the basis that its aims and beliefs ‘conflict with the culture and ideas [Metro Bank is] pushing’. Given that Metro Bank is a member of trans lobby group Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme, we can assume that it is ‘pushing’ gender ideology.

Similarly, Stuart Campbell – the man behind pro-independence blog Wings Over Scotland – claimed last month that First Direct, his bank for over 25 years, cancelled his personal account out of the blue, without even informing him. He only found out when his card was declined at the supermarket.

First Direct offered no explanation as to why it did this to Campbell. But it’s possible to make an educated guess. As well as campaigning for Scottish independence, Campbell has not held back when attacking the excesses of woke ideology. Recently, he has been especially critical of the SNP’s trans policies.