After my banking travails, I fear Britain is lost.
Our large corporates have turned woke. If you stand up to new-think, you too can have your accounts closed and your life made impossible
When moving around London this week, it’s been impossible not to notice a symbol adorning the premises of many of our corporations, including the banks: the multicoloured Pride flag. We are living through the politicisation of our corporate sector. Woe betide you if you do not conform with its worldview.
This was brought home to me when I was recently told by my bank that it is closing all my accounts without explanation. It is impossible to function without a bank account. It should alarm everybody that a bank has the power to punish those it considers to have erred or strayed.
I wasn’t too surprised to receive a call a few weeks ago informing me that my business and personal accounts would be closed. In recent years, the same thing has happened to colleagues in Ukip and the Brexit Party, and I am well aware of the procedure. No reasons are ever given. The bank simply informs the customer that their accounts will be shuttered.
I can trace this vile process back to 2014, when it happened to a Ukip by-election candidate. Those targeted have usually chosen to stay quiet as they search desperately for an alternative bank and hope the situation will right itself. Not everybody is prepared to hush it up, though. Christina Jordan, a former nurse originally from Malaysia who came out of retirement in 2019 and was elected as a Brexit Party MEP, has allowed me to share that she suffered this fate too. Soon after her election, the bank she had used for 31 years summarily cancelled her account and those of her husband and daughter. I believe this has happened to too many people for it to be a coincidence.
In my case, I was told by the banking group with whom I’ve been a customer since 1980 – and with which all of my business and personal accounts have been held – that a letter would follow the call I received. It would offer a full explanation. The letter arrived, but it merely re-stated the impending closure and supplied the date by which I should remove my money.
I kept this to myself while I sought a different bank. After many hours of trying, this has come to nothing. I’ve been rejected by seven other banks. Apparently, I am a “politically exposed person” and carry too much risk and too many compliance costs.
I smell a rat and am certain something much bigger is going on. For years, I have been falsely accused of having financial links to Russian funding. Even though this is nonsense, MPs have used parliamentary privilege to accuse various people associated with the Brexit campaign of the same thing. Last year, the Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant claimed in the Commons chamber that I received £548,573 in one calendar year “from the Russian state”. Despite my pleas to him and the Speaker to correct this assertion, there has been no retraction.
Has Bryant ever stopped to consider the knock-on effects of his slander? Several of my family members have also had their bank accounts closed. I feel not just anger about this, but also guilt. Once, everybody in the UK was entitled to a bank account. But since the Post Office was privatised, this no longer applies. Without a bank account, you become a non-person, unable to live within the law. In Germany and other countries the right to a bank account still exists. Our law must change.
Be aware: if they are coming for me today, they can come for you tomorrow. If you were to post a political opinion on social media that did not conform to your bank’s “values”, you could find yourself in my position. This happened to a gentleman recently who questioned why his bank was celebrating Pride. He is now being advised by the Free Speech Union.
I am going to take some time off to work out what to do. But all this makes me wonder: has Britain gone so far down the road of authoritarianism that it is too late to turn back?
