Nigel Farage has called for the chairman of NatWest Group to be “replaced at the soonest possible opportunity” over misjudgements in the de-banking scandal.
He told GB News: “What happened yesterday was Howard Davies, the chairperson, as he calls himself, of the NatWest group, announcing the figures and saying everything’s fine, I’m staying on, there’s just going to be a little review and we’ll get to the bottom of what happened in the Farage case.
“None of that is good enough for the following three reasons. Firstly, he was formerly the boss of the FSA, the regulator, the predecessor to the FCA and yet Alison Rose broke several of the most important fundamental rules of that code, and yet Howard thought she should stay in her job until he was forced to call another emergency board meeting at which they got rid of her. So the misjudgement on that was enormous.
“Secondly, he yesterday said she was a great leader, which means he’s opened the door for her to be given £2.4 million or £3 million to go away, and I do not think as investors and taxpayers into this company that the majority of people will find that acceptable.”
In an interview with Philip Davies and Esther McVey, he continued: “But here is what really sums up why I’m afraid he’s unsuitable. He announces there’ll be a review into why the Farage accounts were closed and he appoints Travers Smith, a city law firm.
“The chair emeritus and senior adviser of that company is a man called Chris Hale, who during the referendum campaign described Brexiteers as being xenophobic, racist, and nostalgic – almost exactly the same phraseology that was used about me in that report that Coutts had done into me which originally led to me being de-banked.
“What Howard has done is to choose one of his Establishment chums to call it an inquiry, to make it a total whitewash, and I don’t see how anybody in their right minds can think this is a fair and reasonable way to proceed.”
He added: “This is not just a commercial company listed on the stock exchange. We, the taxpayer, are the major investor.
“And it’s interesting if you read the financial press this morning and the commentary right across the spectrum, including a lot of commentators who did not support Brexit and certainly would not support me, and it’s wall-to-wall that Howard Davies has got all of this wrong this week and simply must be replaced at the soonest possible opportunity.”
