Nigel Farage has said Parliament needs to oppose an amendment which some say could give the DWP the right to access the bank accounts of anyone in receipt of DWP money.

Speaking on GB News, Nigel Farage said: “We’ve been hearing a lot of stories recently about fraud, particularly on Universal Credit.  And I have to say that the Department of Work and Pensions having powers to check into people’s bank accounts and assets to make sure they’re not being defrauded on the face of it, I think is a good thing.

“However, and this is worrying, there is an amendment coming into government legislation that will allow the DWP to access bank accounts which after all aren’t just financial transactions; they also say where you’ve travelled to and many other things that you’ve done – that will allow them to access it for anybody in receipt of DWP money.

“And that will of course include every pensioner in the country.

“I have to say that I’m not surprised that Big Brother Watch says it’s breathtaking that the Conservative government is so recklessly creating Big Brother style spying powers to intrude on the population’s bank accounts and this worries me. In a sense, once again this is about financial institutions, it’s about their relationship with the government.

“I really think someone in Parliament needs to stand up and shout because government just gets bigger and bigger. Its ability to intrude into our lives and indeed, to interfere in our lives, gets greater and greater, for frankly, not much good at all.”