Nigel Farage: Coutts closed bank account over views on Brexit, Donald Trump and gender ideology

Nigel Farage has claimed he has documents showing Coutts bank closed his account because his views on Brexit, Donald Trump and gender ideology “do not align with our values”.

The former Brexit Party leader obtained an internal report from the bank’s reputational risk team that was used to justify the closure via a subject access request.

In a video posted on Twitter, he said the report suggests he had improper links to Russian funding, along with his associate, Brexit supporter and businessman Arron Banks.

"The document reads like a brief you'd give to a barrister ahead of a serious criminal trial. From the tone you'd think I must be one of the worst human beings to have inhabited this planet.

"Brexit is mentioned 30 times, Russia is mentioned 22 times with links to a whole series of articles in The Guardian and elsewhere attempting to link myself and Arron Banks to Russia and Russia funding.

"All of that has been disproved, with Arron winning his court case against (Guardian journalist) Carole Cadwalladr."

TalkTV's Julia Hartley-Brewer called the situation "genuinely terrifying".

She said: "We're in a sort of Chinese-style social credit system, where if your views are not the correct views you can have your bank account closed".

The BBC had earlier reported that Coutts closed Mr Farage's account because it fell below a financial threshold.

TalkTV's Isabel Oakeshott said: "BBC reporter Simon Jack who published a totally misleading story suggesting Nigel Farage was cancelled by Coutts for being "insufficiently wealthy" owes him an an apology - as does BBC News for running such a shamefully inaccurate story."

Rishi Sunak said at the time that banks should not be allowed to close customers’ accounts because of their views.

The Prime Minister said the right to free speech had to be respected “and that should not be an excuse to close anyone’s account”.