Nigel Farage says Alison Rose quitting is a ‘start’, but ‘whole board’ must go | Politics | News
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Nigel Farage has said the resignation of NatWest CEO Dame Alison Rose is a “start”, but added the entire board must quit too after publicising their “untrue” statement of support for her just hours earlier.
On his GB News show last night, Mr Farage demanded that Alison Rose, Peter Flavel and Howard Davies must all quit their roles in the Coutts scandal.
This morning he goes further, saying all members of the NatWest board “backed that statement that was put out at 17.42 yesterday”.
He added: “Anybody that backed that behaviour, should be gone.”
The statement said the Board had “full confidence in Ms Rose as CEO of the bank”.
However, hours later they reconvened after it emerged Jeremy Hunt himself had “significant concerns” about her remaining in post.
The NatWest statement yesterday afternoon said Dame Alison: “Has proved, over the last four years to be an outstanding leader of the institution, as demonstrated by our results.
“The Board, therefore, believes it is clearly in the interest of all the bank’s shareholders and customers that she continues in post.”
The swift resignation of Dame Alison just hours later, however, has led to Mr Farage calling the statement “totally unsustainable and untrue”.
This morning Mr Farage welcomed Dame Alison’s resignation, saying it was “a start”.
Speaking to GB News this morning, the Brexit supremo said her resignation “had to happen”.
He said: “The first rule of banking is you have to respect the privacy of the customer. You also have to respect the GDPR regulations.
“They were both broken, very clearly, by the boss of NatWest.
“I hope that this serves as a warning to the banking industry. We need both cultural and legal changes to a system that has unfairly shut down many thousands of innocent people.
“I will do my best to be their voice.”
This morning, top Treasury Minister Andrew Griffith said the NatWest chief was “right” to resign from her multi-million-pound job.
Mr Griffith said: “This would never have happened if NatWest had not taken it upon itself to withdraw a bank account due to someone’s lawful political views”.
“That was and is always unacceptable.
“I hope the whole financial sector learns from this incident. Its role is to serve customers well and fairly – not to tell them how or what to think.”