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Must NatWest boss Alison Rose now resign over the Farage affair at Coutts

By Tom Winnifrith | Thursday 20 July 2023


Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.


I discussed the scandal of the closing of Nigel Farage’s bank account by Coutts on political grounds in a podcast yesterday HERE. Like the heroic Peter Tatchell who has opined on this matter, I really disagree with Farage on many things, but I argue that what Coutts has done is scandalous. But this scandal now looks like it is ratchetting up and very well could cost Dame Alison Rose, the boss of NatWest (NWG) which owns Coutts, her job. Here’s why.

Shortly after Farage revealed that Coutts was closing his account on political grounds, the BBC’s business reporter Simon Jack “revealed” on twitter that sources close to Coutts had let him know that the real reason Farage’s account was being closed was because it did not have the requisite £1 million. The Guardian, the FT and the liberal media established then piled in on Farage as I discussed in the podcast.

But many other Coutts customers then stepped forward to say they also did not have a million quid and were not being shown the door and today Farage published internal Coutts memos stating that is account WAS economically viable but also that it was being closed down because of Farage’s views on Brexit, immigration, the global warming hoax and for supporting Donald Trump. It repeated unverifiable and defamatory hearsay that the Russians were bankrolling Farage.

So the source close to Coutts not only lied totally but also disclosed confidential client details ( that Farage did not have a Bernie in his account) which is a massive breach of GDPR rules. So who was this source? I do not expect Jack to disclose it but it has now emerged that the night before Jack got his “scoop” he was sitting next to Alison Rose at a posh City dinner.

Did they discuss Farage? What did Rose say? Was she the source or did she introduce Jack to the source? If she was involved in this in any way then, quite simply, for that data breach but also for, effectively, accusing Farage of lying she really needs to consider her position and do so with with immediate effect as Farage, quite rightly, is now threatening to involve the old Bill over the data breach. Let me rephrase, she should be sacked with cause and without compensation.

The honourable thing for Rose to do, if she was Jack’s source or put him in touch with a source, is to resign with immediate effect and without compensation. The right thing for NatWest to do is to sack her.

But Rose is someone who bangs on about diversity but only on her terms, you can think what you want as long as it chimes with Islington values. Folks like that have no honour. I bet that she either stays put or if she does go that she will get a monstrous payoff.
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