Saturday, July 29, 2023
Did Farage have a point?
I hate myself already for saying this, but Nigel Farage may have had a point when he said that banks should not be able to close down clients' accounts because they diisagree with their political views.
As many commentators have pointed out this is not just a Farage issue. There is a principle involved. If they can do it to Farage, then they can do it to anybody. And as this Guardian article points out, the random, targeting of political figures is not just confined to the extreme right wing.
The paper quotes anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller who says that “we don’t have a functioning democracy” if new political parties cannot access banking services, after she was told her own party’s account would be closed:
The government and financial services watchdog must step in, she said, to ensure new parties and MPs can access banking to be able to operate. Miller said it was a “bigger issue” than the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account, which led to a row resulting in the resignations of the top bosses at NatWest and Coutts.
Miller, who came to prominence bringing legal cases over Brexit, was told earlier this month by Monzo that her True and Fair party’s account would close in September.
She was told in a message on the bank’s app but was given no explanation.
Monzo has since said it does not accept any political parties and that the account was opened erroneously as it was not categorised as such in the application.
Nine banks had turned down the True and Fair party before it got the account with Monzo in November 2021, according to Miller.
She told the PA news agency: “That is the bigger issue, the fact that as a new insurgent political party you have no access to banking services, which is extraordinary in a democracy.”
The party has now found a small institution to bank with but, Miller says: “What if they turn around in future and say: ‘Well, actually, we’ve decided for no reason that because you’re a political party, you can’t have a bank account’?
“I think the government and the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] have got to step in straight away because if this happened – we lose our account in September for Monzo, and then another bank or our new provider decides that they will use this same rule saying: ‘Oh well, we don’t accept political parties’ – then we in effect won’t exist.
Having been involved in the review of a political account I run by the bank concerned, I can testify that the whole process is opaque. The senior official I spoke to clearly did not understand how political parties operate, leaving me to spell out the basics to him, and over a year later I have still not been informed of the outcome of that review.
Gina Miller is quite correct, democracy needs money to operate effectively. If we can not manage that money in a transparent way through legitimate institutions, then the whole basis of our system will start to collapse. It is time for the government to intervene.
As many commentators have pointed out this is not just a Farage issue. There is a principle involved. If they can do it to Farage, then they can do it to anybody. And as this Guardian article points out, the random, targeting of political figures is not just confined to the extreme right wing.
The paper quotes anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller who says that “we don’t have a functioning democracy” if new political parties cannot access banking services, after she was told her own party’s account would be closed:
The government and financial services watchdog must step in, she said, to ensure new parties and MPs can access banking to be able to operate. Miller said it was a “bigger issue” than the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account, which led to a row resulting in the resignations of the top bosses at NatWest and Coutts.
Miller, who came to prominence bringing legal cases over Brexit, was told earlier this month by Monzo that her True and Fair party’s account would close in September.
She was told in a message on the bank’s app but was given no explanation.
Monzo has since said it does not accept any political parties and that the account was opened erroneously as it was not categorised as such in the application.
Nine banks had turned down the True and Fair party before it got the account with Monzo in November 2021, according to Miller.
She told the PA news agency: “That is the bigger issue, the fact that as a new insurgent political party you have no access to banking services, which is extraordinary in a democracy.”
The party has now found a small institution to bank with but, Miller says: “What if they turn around in future and say: ‘Well, actually, we’ve decided for no reason that because you’re a political party, you can’t have a bank account’?
“I think the government and the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] have got to step in straight away because if this happened – we lose our account in September for Monzo, and then another bank or our new provider decides that they will use this same rule saying: ‘Oh well, we don’t accept political parties’ – then we in effect won’t exist.
Having been involved in the review of a political account I run by the bank concerned, I can testify that the whole process is opaque. The senior official I spoke to clearly did not understand how political parties operate, leaving me to spell out the basics to him, and over a year later I have still not been informed of the outcome of that review.
Gina Miller is quite correct, democracy needs money to operate effectively. If we can not manage that money in a transparent way through legitimate institutions, then the whole basis of our system will start to collapse. It is time for the government to intervene.
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Political parties are the canary in the coal mine here. It is because of their profile that people are starting to take notice when banks choose to reject them. But there are many others affected by bank account closures, notably sex workers as illustrated by this "The Conversation" article: https://theconversation.com/bank-account-closures-dont-just-affect-politically-exposed-persons-sex-workers-have-struggled-with-financial-exclusion-for-years-210235
There is no justification for any bank closing an account unless there is clear evidence of criminality, e.g. the conviction of the account-holder, and only then when the the funds in the account can be shown to be the result of the criminal activity.
Our Party needs to major on this as an issue of personal freedom and I hope to see an emergency motion on it at our Conference in September.
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There is no justification for any bank closing an account unless there is clear evidence of criminality, e.g. the conviction of the account-holder, and only then when the the funds in the account can be shown to be the result of the criminal activity.
Our Party needs to major on this as an issue of personal freedom and I hope to see an emergency motion on it at our Conference in September.
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