Nigel Farage, NatWest and a political storm
Britain’s government puts down a marker on free speech and business
NIGEL FARAGE, the front man of the Brexit campaign, has sown havoc in another British institution. Mr Farage had claimed he was the victim of “blatant corporate prejudice” after Coutts, a bank whose clients include the royal family, dropped him. The government agreed. Early on July 26th Dame Alison Rose, the chief executive of NatWest, Coutts’s parent group and one of Britain’s biggest lenders, resigned over her mishandling of the affair. The state remains NatWest’s largest shareholder. At a time when businesses appear ready to dump clients at the first whiff of controversy, ministers have laid down a marker.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Grifter 1, Bank 0”
From the July 29th 2023 edition
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