gone west
NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose quits bank and is sacked from gov roles over leak…as Farage calls for more heads to roll
NIGEL Farage said the sacking of NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose was “a good start” as she was stripped of three plum government roles last night.
The disgraced financier was fired from the bank in the early hours of yesterday morning after admitting leaking a false story about the Brexiteer’s Coutts account to the BBC.
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Rishi Sunak then kicked her off his council of business leaders, as well as from a key role advising the Government on Net Zero.
She was also fired from leading the Rose Review into women in business.
But Mr Farage said the NatWest board “should all go” after they said Dame Alison had their “full support” just hours before forcing her out.
He said: “The first rule of banking is client confidentiality. Dame Alison clearly broke that.
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“Yet we got this extraordinary statement that the board still had confidence in her.
“Any member of the board who supported that statement last night simply shouldn’t be there.”
Downing Street welcomed Dame Alison’s departure after expressing “serious concerns” at the board’s backing of the disgraced CEO before their U-turn.
Retail banking bosses were hauled in for a dressing-down yesterday morning by City minister Andrew Griffith, after Coutts kicked Mr Farage out for his political views.
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He reminded them that legal free speech is a fundamental right in the UK.
Mr Farage proved he had been stripped of his account because he clashed with the bank’s “inclusive culture”.
Mr Griffith warned that this was “completely unacceptable”.
He told banks they cannot close accounts of customers for expressing political views and should not trawl social media unless it was for fraud or money-laundering checks.
Bank chiefs acknowledged the scandal had damaged the public’s trust in the banking sector during the testy virtual meeting.
Mr Griffith said: “It is right that the NatWest CEO has resigned.
“This would never have happened if NatWest had not taken it upon itself to withdraw an account due to someone’s lawful political views.”
Banks have agreed to give customers 90 days’ notice before withdrawing their services and spell out clearly reasons for debanking them.
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