Bank of England boss refused to stop ‘political cleansing’ of Brexiteer accounts

Two more leading Brexiteers have revealed how the current Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey refused to intervene when Barclays decided to close their accounts without warning in 2018. Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore , friends of Nigel Farage , appear to have also been targeted for political reasons in 2018 and appealed to Bailey who at the time was head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which oversees banks. But they claim that at the time Bailey refused to intervene. Banks and Wigmore ran the Leave.EU campaign before and during the 2016 EU Referendum and were with Farage when he met Donald Trump but, like the former Brexit Party leader, had also been subject to false allegations about Russia collusion. Mr Banks claimed to the Mail on Sunday that his accounts were closed because of his role in winning the referendum campaign. Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore were Brexit campaigners (Image: Getty) The closure of Mr Banks’ accounts meant that his GoSkippy motor insurance customers were in danger of not receiving their financial support. He claims that he discovered he was being ‘debanked’ in November 2018 when he was visited by a senior Barclays manager, who delivered 27 white envelopes containing letters of termination saying his accounts would cease to operate in 90 days. He added that accounts held by his ex-wife and other family members were also targeted. This included one held by his brother’s law firm. Added to that the bank also “called in all loans and facilities I had with them after 20 years of blemish-free banking.” The closures even included a bank on the Isle of Man in which Mr Banks owned a 28 percent stake. Barclays has been dragged into the debanking scandal (Image: Getty) The row has exploded since Nigel Farage revealed how Coutts Bank decided to close his accounts for political reasons. The scandal has already seen the forced resignation of Dame Alison Rose as NatWest chief executive for leaking private details of M Farage’s accounts to the BBC , and Peter Flavel, the chief executive of Coutts, for his role in debanking Mr Farage. Mr Banks has also revealed that Mr Bailey was made aware of the debanking scandal when he met with Sir Mark Boleat, Eldon’s chairman, at the annual City Banquet in Mansion House on October 24 that year. In an email to Mr Banks, sent the next day, Sir Mark said he was “chatting about this” to Mr Bailey and “mentioned our problem”. He wrote: “Unprompted, he said there was concern about decision-taking in Barclays.” Sir Mark had said he was sat next to Mark Steward, then Mr Bailey’s Executive Director Enforcement and Oversight at the FCA. Sir Mark suggested that Steward “knew without prompting” about the “debanking” which indicated that “top people in the FCA have been closely following Eldon”, adding that he “got the impression we might be able to use the FCA”. Meanwhile, Mr Wigmore, who was Leave.EU’s director of communications was also targeted by NatWest. He told Express.co.uk: “NatWest cancelled my account, my wife’s account, and even my kids last year. “They froze my assets and then without notice killed our accounts. “The banks went for us based on our politics. It is a form of political ethnic cleansing. “It is a full-on persecution of Brexit players. I couldn’t get another account for six months, and even then not in my name.” Mr Banks said: “As a highprofile player in the Brexit campaign, I have been targeted by banks and regulators and many other organisations. “It was my view at the time that Barclays had debanked my accounts for political reasons, and the recent Coutts scandal has shed new light on the whole banking sector. Eldon Insurance was a highly regulated insurance business. Barclays took the business to the brink of destruction, which was utterly disgraceful behaviour. “It is clear that the Financial Conduct Authority knew about of the issue of debanking people on their political views and Andrew Bailey has questions to answer on why he did nothing. “The City and FCA run a system of blackballing people they don’t like. We know big organisations such as Barclays donated cash to the Remain campaign. “My only crime was backing Brexit , which I would do again in a heartbeat – but it came at a heavy price.” A Barclays spokesman told the Mail on Sunday: “While we cannot comment on individual accounts, we comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. We would only withdraw banking services from an individual or business in exceptional circumstances.”