NIGEL Farage said that he may be forced to leave the UK because his bank accounts are being closed and he cannot open a new one.
In a tweet this morning, the GB News presenter said he will reveal more during his show this evening but added that he has retained lawyers to battle the decision by his bank.
He said: “I’ve been living with something for the last couple of months that may well fundamentally affect my future career going on from here and whether I can even stay living in this country…
“I got a phone call a couple of months ago to say we are closing your accounts. I asked why. No reason was given. I was told a letter would come which would explain everything.
“The letter came through and simply said we are closing your accounts. We want to finish it all by a date, which is around about now. I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I complained. I emailed the chairman. A lackey phoned me to say that it was a commercial decision, which I have to say, I didn’t believe for a single moment.
“So I thought, ‘well, there we are, I’ll have to go and find a different bank’. I’ve been to six, no seven banks actually and asked them all, ‘could I have a personal and a business account?’ and the answer has been no in every single case.”
Nigel said: “There is nothing irregular or unusual about what I do. The payments that go in and come out every month are pretty much the same. I maintain my business account on a big positive cash balance, which I guess with interest rates where they are is pretty good for the bank, too. So why is this happening to me?
“Well, one explanation is this. A few years ago, the European Union came up with a definition of somebody called a PEP, a Politically Exposed Person. Now this could range from anybody from a prime minister down to a local councillor. I think the reason for it was, you know, where people in politics are open to bribery.
“Could foreign governments from Ukraine or China or wherever else it may be that they’d be pumping money into the accounts of corrupt politicians. So I kind of understand that and get that but it’s all about interpretation, isn’t it? And what the banks argue is that to maintain an account for the exposed person, gives them increased costs of compliance.”
He added: “To my knowledge, I don’t think anybody has been treated like me in the world of politics, but then the banks, you see, themselves are part of the big corporate structures in this country. These are the organisations who did not want Brexit to happen. And I think in my case, probably the corporate world will never ever forgive me, because they know if I hadn’t done what I did, with the help of thousands of people in our people’s army, that never would have been a referendum, let alone a victory.
“I’m the one that is to carry the blame. So that’s the second possible reason why I can’t get a bank account prejudice that comes from our institutions.
“But I think there’s a third reason. A few months ago, in the House of Commons, Sir Chris Bryant, chairman of the Privileges Committee, said using parliamentary privilege that I had received large sums of money directly from the Russian government, and he named the calendar year in which it had happened.
“Truth is, I didn’t receive a penny from any source with even any link to Russia. And yet, because he said it, it stands. I wrote to the speaker, I demanded an apology. Nothing has been forthcoming from Sir Chris Bryant.
“I wonder whether that is what’s given me part of the problem. I have employed a top team of London lawyers. I’m going through a series of subject access requests to find out what is held on me by the international agencies and by the bank that wants to close me down.
“But think about it. Without a bank account, you effectively become a non-person you don’t actually exist. It’s like the worst regimes of the mid 20th century, be they in Russia or Germany. You literally become a non-person.”
Nigel added: “I won’t really be able to exist and function in a modern 21st century Britain. So I will tell you more about this on GB News at seven o’clock tonight as to what my decision is, but I’m beginning to think that perhaps living in the United Kingdom is now becoming completely unliveable because of the levels of prejudice against me.”
