NatWest has ‘further to go’ in rectifying Nigel Farage row, says Michael Gove

The former Ukip leader has demanded a probe into the source of a BBC story that suggested the closure of his account was not linked to his politics.

Michael Gove piled pressure on NatWest to do more in order to rectify the row with Nigel Farage after its private arm Coutts shut down his bank account.

Mr Gove on Tuesday said the banking company had “further to go” in resolving the matter.

Mr Farage has sought to put pressure back on NatWest after winning an apology from the BBC over an inaccurate story that suggested the closure of his account was not due to his political views but because he lacked the funds needed to hold an account at the high-net-worth bank.

It came after the former Ukip leader acquired a dossier indicating his account was shut by Coutts, owned by NatWest Group, because it had found his public statements did “not align” with its values.

Housing secretary Mr Gove told Sky News: “I have a lot of sympathy for the position Nigel Farage has found himself in.

“As far as I can tell the decision that was taken to deprive him of banking facilities was a big mistake, something done for the wrong reasons.

“But it’s not for me to determine what the company should do but I definitely think he was owed an apology, he’s got one, but I think the company has further to go in order to make sure this matter ends appropriately.”

Mr Farage has already received an apology from NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose, who told him she was sorry for the “deeply inappropriate comments” about him in official papers.

But Mr Farage has continued to put pressure on the lender’s leadership to investigate how his private financial information became public.

And on Monday night former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has called on Dame Alison to quit if she is the source of the BBC’s story about Mr Farage.

He told GB News that the BBC had been “characteristically” slow in apologising to the former UKIP leader about the report, but said it “gets there in the end”.

And Sir Jacob said Dame Alison now “must answer” whether she was the BBC’s source, who business editor Simon Jack described as “trusted and senior”.

“Even public figures should be able to rely on their doctor and their banker to keep confidential the exchanges they have,” Sir Jacob said.

He added: “If Dame Alison has broken this, she must go.”

The ex-Brexit Party leader accepted the BBC’s apology, which said that as part of the reporting process, the broadcaster “went back to the source to check they were happy for us to publish the information”.

Mr Jack also apologised, saying the reporting had been based on information from a “trusted and senior source” but “turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate”.

The Telegraph reported that the BBC story was published a day after Mr Jack sat next to Dame Alison at a charity dinner.

Mr Farage on Monday said there was “no fault or no blame on the BBC” and that the “spotlight” should now return to NatWest.

The politician-turned-broadcaster has demanded that NatWest Group chairman Sir Howard Davies launch an internal investigation into the leak.