Monzo slated as woke bank give ‘extreme’ JK Rowling characterisation
JK Rowling has been described as 'vile' by Monzo employees
PA
British online bank Monzo is under fire after their staff members denied Jeremy Hunt a bank account and criticised individuals such as JK Rowling and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Employees at the challenger bank dubbed the Harry Potter author “vile” in a series of messages that have been described as “extreme”.
One staff member also called on Jacob Rees-Mogg to “do the human race a favour and stay out of politics forever” in a Slack forum comprised of Monzo workers in October last year.
GB News presenter Andrew Doyle says the revelations follow a series of instances in recent months where British banks have increasingly placed themselves as “moral arbiters” in society.
The messages regarding JK Rowling, who has been a figure of furore over her comments on gender issues, were of particular concern to GB News presenter Nick Dixon.
“They called JK Rowling ‘vile’, a senior manager, shockingly”, he said on Headliners.
“To be fair to Monzo, they say these are cherry-picked comments from a handful of employees.
“I was shocked that a senior manager said that ‘the Tories are clearly swaying towards arguments put forward by Terfs’.
“To be calling JK Rowling ‘vile’ and to be talking about Terfs is pretty extreme.”
Terf stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist, and is often seen as a slur by gender-critical people who are of the belief that you cannot change sex.
Nick Dixon has hit out at Monzo employees for calling JK Rowling 'vile'
GB News
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed last month that he had his application for an account with the lender rejected before he took on his current role.
It follows a series of controversial banking cases, such as Nigel Farage’s debanking, which resulted in the resignation of NatWest CEO’s Dame Alison Rose after it emerged that she had discussed his Coutts account with the BBC.
The former Brexit Party leader had his account removed by Coutts, which is owned by NatWest, as his views did not align with the bank’s values.
A whistleblower has since spoken out on similar issues at Monzo, revealing the messages which take aim at individuals such as Jacob Rees-Mogg.
GB News presenter Andrew Doyle also raised concerns on the issue during Wednesday’s edition of Headliners, suggesting it could be symptomatic of a societal issue.
“They’re slagging off Brexit voters, these are the high status, fashionable opinions, but a lot of the people working at this bank won’t share these opinions”, he said.
“What these people will do is shut up and learn to keep quiet. These people are the loudest and most vociferous.”
A spokesman for Monzo told The Times: “Our ambition is to make money work for everyone, which means that we’re politically neutral and personal views play no part in our policies or decision making, including eligibility for a Monzo account. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically untrue.
“These cherry-picked comments are personal views of a handful of employees in informal conversations and it is wrong to portray them as the views of Monzo or our thousands of other employees.”