Nigel Farage has claimed that his bank accounts have been closed “without explanation”.
The former UKIP leader, 59, said he had been with the “prestigious” banking group – which he did not name – for more than 40 years.
However, he said he had received a letter from the bank to tell him his personal and business accounts were being closed.
He claimed that the bank had given no explanation in the letter as to the reason behind the closures, but that he had since been told over the phone that the move was a “commercial decision”.
In a six-minute video posted on Twitter, Mr Farage, the former Brexit Party leader, said that losing his bank account was the equivalent of being a “non person” and that the decision may “fundamentally affect my future career and whether I can even go on staying living here in this country”.
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He said: “I got a phone call a couple of months ago to say ‘we are closing your accounts’, I asked ‘why’, no reason was given.
“I was told a letter would come which will explain everything, the letter came through and simply said ‘we are closing your accounts, we want to finish it all by a date’, which is around about now.
“I didn’t quite know what to make of it, I complained, I emailed the chairman, a lackey phoned me to say that it was a commercial decision, which I have to say, I don’t believe for a single moment.
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“So I thought, well there we are, I’ll have to go and find a different bank, I’ve been to seven banks, asked them all ‘could I have a personal and a business account?’, and the answer has been no in every single case.
“There is nothing irregular or unusual about what I do, the payments that go in and come out every month are pretty much the same, I maintain in my business account quite a big positive cash balance, which I guess with interest rates where they are is pretty good for the bank too.”
He suggested that the closures could be linked to laws governing banks on “politically exposed persons” – also known as PEPs.
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A PEP is someone who is in public office and is, therefore, at higher risk for potential involvement in bribery or corruption due to the nature of their position.
PEPs include MPs, ministers, members of the Supreme court, and their family members, among others. Accounts owned by PEPs require banks to apply enhanced due diligence measures.
Mr Farage admitted that it was sensible for banks to ensure that foreign countries were not paying money to “corrupt politicians”, but said extra compliance costs for banks had to be proportionate.
A prominent Leave campaigner in the Brexit referendum and now a presenter for GB News, Mr Farage suggested he could be facing “prejudice” because the “corporate world” had not forgiven him for Brexit.
He also claimed in his video that the “only explanation I can think of” for the decision was a claim made by Labour MP Chris Bryant in the House of Commons that Mr Farage had received nearly £550,000 from Kremlin-backed TV channel RT.
Mr Farage has categorically denied the claims by Mr Bryant – which were made under the protection of parliamentary privilege and which he has not repeated outside the Commons.
“The truth is I’ve never received any money from any sources with any link to Russia,” Mr Farage said.
