Internal emails have revealed that Nigel Farage-ally and leader of the rebranded Brexit Party, Richard Tice was also debanked over his political beliefs.
According to bank documents obtained by The Sun on Sunday newspaper, the London branch of financial heavyweight Swiss Re refused to offer a business loan to Reform UK leader Richard Tice’s Quidnet Capital investment firm in April of last year on the basis that he allegedly posed a “reputational risk” to the institution.
The lender went on to note in its “reason for decline” that “Quidnet CEO is Richard Tice, a former member of the European Parliament for the East of England,” adding: “He is currently leader of Reform UK.”
Responding to the apparently politically motivated decision, Tice said: “Because of wokeness I am deemed a reputational risk.
“I am a man who has made money, brought in investment, created jobs and built many homes in this country. If that is how they think of people who are successful businessmen then God help us all… It is insane.”
The leader of Reform UK — formerly the Brexit Party — was one of the leading figures in the 2016 referendum which ultimately saw the United Kingdom leave the European Union.
Tice said that the infection of leftist ideology in the banking sector is holding back the country from truly flourishing post-Brexit, saying: “This is one of the reasons we are struggling to grow as an economy – because people and businesses are being weighed down by all this bureaucracy and it is all down to wokeness.”
It is not the first time that Tice has run into banking issues in Britain, with his Reform UK party having its accounts shuttered by Metro Bank in 2021.
Although the bank attempted to claim that it operates on the principle of “political neutrality” and that the decision was merely made for commercial reasons, Tice disputed their defence, noting that “millions of pounds” had passed through the Reform UK account prior to it being shut down. He went on to surmise that it was a result of the bank not wanting to associate with so-called “politically exposed persons and political parties.”
The issue of “politically exposed persons” (PEPs) came to the forefront of British politics this summer after Nigel Farage had his bank accounts shut down at Coutts after the bankers determined that the Brexit leader did not “align” with their values.
The PEP designation is a holdover EU law that has remained on the books in Britain, with successive Conservative governments refusing to repeal all remaining legislation from Brussels still in place in the UK. Originally intended to counter money laundering and prevent politicians from accepting bribes, in the wake of the Farage debanking it has been accused of enabling banks to punish their political opponents or to simply save money on more difficult accounts.
The scale of debanking in Britain is not fully known, however. Even when excluding accounts shut down for political reasons, over a million accounts have been closed over the past four years.
In response to the Farage debanking scandal, the government is preparing to introduce banking reforms in the upcoming legislative term, such as providing more protections for British PEPs, as well as requiring banks to give customers a warning well in advance of their accounts being shut and to provide a reason for their decision.