Nigel Farage gets apology from BBC over Coutts bank account closure story

Simon Jack says ‘trusted and senior source’ gave incomplete information

The BBC's business editor has apologised to Nigel Farage after a row over a story about the closure of the politician's bank account.

Simon Jack reported that Mr Farage had lost his account at private bank Coutts because he lacked the funds needed to hold it.

It came after the prestigious institution abruptly cut tied with the former Brexit Party and Ukip leader and offered him a normal account with its parent firm NatWest instead.

But information requested by Mr Farage later revealed that the bank had cited a number of other reasons for closing the account, including the politician's political campaigning and reputation.

This appeared to contradict earlier reporting about the story, which implied falling below the limit for an account was the main or only factor.

Mr Jack said the information he published had been based on a "trusted and senior source" but that it was "incomplete and inaccurate".

"The information on which we based our reporting on Nigel Farage and his bank accounts came from a trusted and senior source," he said.

"However, the information turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate. Therefore I would like to apologise to Mr Farage."

Mr Farage, the former Brexit Party leader, told his GB New programme on Monday night that he had received a letter of apology from BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness, and said he had accepted it.

In the letter, Ms Turness said: “It’s clear that the story we originally published, based on information provided by our source, turned out to be inaccurate.”

“While our teams took the correct steps in rectifying this on air and on our corrections and clarifications page, I can understand why you feel this story has contributed to you being put through a considerable and humiliating amount of publicity.”

She said that as part of the reporting process, the BBC “went back to the source to check they were happy for us to publish the information. They said they were”.

Politician-turned-broadcaster Nigel Farage was unhappy with how Coutts handled his account closure (Dominic Lipinski/PA) (PA Archive)

Mr Farage had earlier told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that the focus should return to NatWest and there was “no fault or no blame on the BBC”.

“If a very senior source gives you a good story, of course you run it. There’s no question about that,” he said.

“It’s just that I had to go to very great lengths and great personal damage to undo the story. Some will say the BBC could have acted more quickly but there’s no fault or blame.

“This now goes right back to the NatWest banking group. Somebody in that group decided that it was appropriate, ethical and legal to leak details of my personal financial situation. That, I think, is wrong at every level and that’s where the spotlight should be now, and it will.”

Mr Farage last week got an apology from Dame Alison Rose, the chief executive of NatWest group, who said she regretted “deeply inappropriate comments” by staff at the bank.

Her letter was timed to coincide with the publication of new reforms by the Treasury regulating how and when a bank account can be closed.

The new rules, which officials were looking at prior to the episode involving Mr Farage, will force banks to give customers 90 days’ notice of their account being closed, and to provide an explicit reason.