'Don't believe a bloomin' word!' Blasts Farage as ex-NatWest CEO claims she was ‘honest and brave’ during debanking scandal

'Don't believe a bloomin' word!' Blasts Farage as ex-NatWest CEO claims she was ‘honest and brave’ during debanking scandal

'Don't believe a blooming word of it!' Blasts Nigel Farage after Debanking interview

GB News
Gabrielle Wilde

By Gabrielle Wilde


Published: 05/09/2024

- 20:50

Dame Alison Rose insisted her leadership had been “courageous and honest” during the debanking scandal

Nigel Farage fumed "I don't believe a blooming word of it" after ex-NatWest CEO Dame Alison Rose insisted her leadership had been "courageous and honest" during the debanking scandal.

It comes after the Reform MP found himself blocked from his Coutts bank account after it was closed in June last year.


He was initially told it was because he didn’t meet the exclusive bank’s criteria but documents obtained by the GB News presenter revealed it had been because of his outspoken political opinions.

Speaking on GB News this evening, Farage said: "In an interview, Dame Alison claimed she was the absolute wonder stone of British banking.

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage said that he "doesn't believe a blooming word" of the interview

GB News

"Well, that's until I came along. And she's done an interview, a podcast in which she insists that her leadership was courageous and honest.

"She said for me, it's always about acting with integrity, empathy, respect and treating people well as they join you and as they leave you.

"Of course, that is if you don't question net zero and don't think that open borders are a very good idea, in which case then you simply get debanked.

"Courageous and honest. Sorry. I don't believe a single bloomin' word of it."

Speaking about her leadership on the podcast, Rose said: "I think you learn more by being the person who asks the question, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ or ‘I don’t understand how that works. Explain that to me’.

"It breaks down some of the hierarchy that naturally exists around the senior roles. But also being very candid about the mistakes I’ve made.

Alison RoseRose resigned after admitting to speaking with a BBC journalist about Farage's financesPA

"I think humanising leadership and making it acceptable for people to talk about mistakes, because I don’t think it’s the mistake that defines you, that was always my message.

"Everybody makes mistakes whether they talk about them or not.

"It is not the mistake that defines you, it’s how you respond to the mistake or the error or the failure or the learning experience and what you do with it that defines you.

Dame Alison Rose

She insisted that she was "courageous and brave"

PA

She added: "That’s how I always talked about the errors I made. I would bring them to life in examples of different points of my career when I did something and then what I did with that and how that shaped me.

"I think that type of courageous and honest leadership is really important because mistakes happen and if we don’t create a culture and environment where people can talk about them, learn from them, get the experience from other people, then those mistakes stay hidden and that’s bad culture and bad for the learning experience."

Rose resigned at the time as CEO of NatWest, which owns Coutts, over the saga and admitted a "serious error of judgement" by discussing Farage's case with a BBC journalist.

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