David Davis MP writes for Conservative Home on the need for a right to a bank account

As published on Conservative Home

It is no exaggeration to say that without a bank account, normal life in modern society is near impossible.

Britain is an increasingly cash-free society. Whatever the merits of that trend, there is no denying it makes us more dependent than ever on our bank accounts.

Without a bank account, you would struggle to get a job, to get a home, to obtain a loan, or even to buy a train ticket, since we are closing all the ticket offices. And certainly since 2010, the Government has endeavoured to pay state benefits through your bank, putting pressure on even the poorest to have an account. The removal of your access to an account would mean that your basic freedoms to travel, to work, and to live would be taken away.

Yet recent events have dragged into the public domain a scandalous practice: customers are being de-banked because of lawful political speech. Nobody will have missed the extraordinary developments involving Nigel Farage’s bank account with Coutts.

So when he first discussed this with me about eight weeks ago, I was shocked.

Coutts shut down Farage’s account after concluding they did not like his views, including his support for Brexit. Then, their parent bank NatWest tried to hide the real reason for the account closure, suggesting it was just because he had fallen below Coutts’ wealth threshold. In doing so, NatWest gave personal information about Farage’s account to the BBC – an outrageous breach of privacy as well as an attempt to conceal the truth.

The bosses of both NatWest and Coutts have had to resign, which is only right. In my view, NatWest’s biggest shareholder, the Government, should accelerate the replacement of the group chairman, Howard Davies, as well. Meanwhile Nigel Farage is launching a new website to bring together people targeted by banks’ discrimination. There are likely many tens of thousands of people out there who have been victims.

That includes political parties too – of all stripes. Richard Tice has said that the Reform Party’s bank account was closed by Metro Bank, because of Reform’s support for Brexit. And on the opposite pole, die-hard Remainer Gina Miller has been told her True and Fair party’s bank account will be shut by Monzo.

The same thing has happened to campaign groups such as the Free Speech Union, whose PayPal account was shut last year and only reopened after people like me complained.

Now, we learn that even the Energy Secretary, Grant Shapps, has been affected, with his family blocked by banks because of his involvement in politics. He says one bank told him to provide 18 years of payslips if he wanted to be a customer.

These are just some of the public faces affected. Bank executives are imposing their virtue signalling not just on dissenting politicians and activists, but on everyday people too. Even a vicar had his account with Yorkshire Building Society terminated. Why? Because he wrote to the bank to say they should focus on managing their customers’ finances, rather than on woke social issues.

All this is done by business bureaucrats using shareholder power, very probably against the wishes of shareholders, if they but knew about it.

Even when those who are de-banked do find a bank account elsewhere, it is often offered on far worse terms by a far less secure or reputable bank.

This is, quite simply, an attack on our rights. You cannot live a normal life without a bank account, so having it shut down unfairly undermines your right to live as you wish to.

When the Post Office was still owned by the taxpayer, it offered everyone a bank account. If all others rejected you, you could at least count on the Post Office. But when we sold off the Post Office, we sold off this protection.

That is not to say there is no right to a bank account. The Government encourages a number of banks to offer ‘basic’ accounts to those who are struggling to get one elsewhere. But they are limited in scope – you cannot have an overdraft, for example. And you can even be turned away from these if, say, you are homeless. In the past two years, around 100,000 people have been rejected when applying for basic accounts.

Indeed, when he knew he was to lose his Coutts account Nigel Farage tried unsuccessfully to get an account from nine banks, so that government “guarantee” does not really work.

As a bare minimum, so long as people are solvent they should have the right to a full bank account with a debit card as well as a full business account. This is what a universal right to a bank account really means: nobody facing major restrictions on their banking without due cause.

Any attempt to close a person’s bank account on any grounds except strictly commercial ones, or in the event of conviction for crimes (not just suspicion or charges being brought), must be subject to arbitration by an independent body. It is not good enough for banks to shut down accounts, refuse to tell people why and offer no right of appeal. And that arbitration body needs to be a sight better than the Financial Ombudsman Service (which is essentially useless.)

Banks which do not meet these requirements should have their rights to trade in the UK suspended. That threat will ensure the law – and people’s rights – are properly respected.

The Government must take up this cause when it brings legislation before Parliament in the near future.

But it will not be straightforward. When I raised this issue two years ago, there was little interest shown: the victim was not as willing as Farage to take on the authorities, and without public pressure Whitehall wouldn’t play. Claire Fox’s attempt to tackle this issue in the Lords with an amendment giving a legal guarantee for financial services was batted away, too.

I am told that the reason for this was principally in the Home Office, with the resistance mostly coming from the security agencies. It is very convenient for them to have major movers and shakers – “Politically Exposed Persons” – handicapped in their financial affairs, and that is why they blocked Claire Fox’s attempt to fix this.

So it looks as though we will have to bring our own legislation in. With that in mind, I will be looking to introduce a Private Member’s Bill to guarantee our rights to bank accounts. If I cannot get the time for that, I will be looking to amend the first relevant Bill that goes through the Commons, of which there should be a number in the King’s Speech. And I would expect to win that debate, after the events of the last month. After all, not too many campaigns bracket both Nigel Farage and Gina Miller!

We cannot allow banks – or any other politically correct corporate entity – to essentially cancel people’s ability to live a normal life based on their views. Robust action is the only way to make sure it stops happening. And robust action is what we will take.