A parents’ organisation was reportedly prevented from opening an account with Metro Bank over opposition to allowing children to undergo life-altering transgender medical procedures, in the latest revelation of British banks banning customers for their political views.
Following Brexit leader Nigel Farage revealing nine banks have refused him accounts, a slew of people, mostly holding right-wing or conservative-leaning beliefs have revealed they have faced similar Chinese communist-style debanking in Britain.
According to a report from The Telegraph, the transgenderism-critical parents group Our Duty — which represents over 2,000 parents who are concerned about children being encouraged into medically transitioning their gender — has been refused a new account at the Metro Bank.
Our Duty’s founder Keith Jordan told the broadsheet they were notified by the bank they were not eligible for a business account because “the content of your website conflicts with the culture and ideas we are pushing”.
Metro Bank, which is the UK’s seventh-largest bank with some 2.5 million customers, reportedly joined the far-left LGBTQ+ Stonewall charity’s ‘Diversity Champion’ scheme, which the government’s Information Commissioner has previously claimed holds a “significant degree of influence” over the firms that sign up. Stonewall denies that it exerts any pressure over the operational decisions of the companies.
The claims from the parent’s group came after Brexit leader Nigel Farage has revealed that nine banks have refused to have him as a customer, with the GB News presenter suggesting that it has been a result of him being considered a Politically Exposed Person (PEP).
In a stunning move, Farage’s previous bank, Coutts, leaked to the BBC that the decision to drop him as a customer was a result of him falling below the financial threshold of having one million deposited in the bank. Mr Farage criticised the bank for leaking his private financial details after the political firestorm broke out after the debanking went public.
‘Mr Brexit’ also said that he had been below the threshold for some time before the decision to drop him was made by the bank. The BBC’s Simon Jack also acknowledged many other customers at the once prestigious bank had come forward saying that their accounts were unaffected by falling below the threshold.
Pride month is celebrated in London as Coutts bank on the Strand advertises its support. (Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty)
Meanwhile, in another example of debanking in Britain, Anglo-Russian aristocrat Alexandra Tolstoy alleged the NatWest bank, which owns Coutts, had closed her account without providing a justification.
Tolstoy, a distant relative of author Leo Tolstoy, and the daughter of former UKIP politician Count Nikolai Tolstoy, said she believed the decision to drop her as a customer was a result of her name, as she does not air her political beliefs in public.
“The irony is it’s like the Soviet Union. Only they would at least tell you what you are accused of. Even in the kangaroo courts of Stalin, you knew what you were being accused of,” she told The Telegraph.
“It is absolutely extraordinary that this is happening in this country. I have no idea what I’m being accused of, maybe it’s a mistake, maybe it’s my name.”
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