GB News presenter Nigel Farage has lauded the ongoing struggles at Metro Bank as the troubled institution seeks hundreds of millions in a bid to rid itself of financial difficulties.
The bank’s shares sank by as much as a third after reports it needed to raise up to £600m.
Metro Bank went all out in a bid to reassure investors about its financial position after the reports emerged on Thursday.
While the bank did not comment on the figure, it said it “continues to consider how best to enhance its capital resources”.
Nigel Farage has hit out at Metro Bank
GB NEWS
One individual who has little sympathy is former Brexit Party leader Farage, who claims the bank shut down the account of the new incarnation of the party, Reform UK, just “months” after it had won a national vote.
“Metro Bank is now in dire trouble”, he said.
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“Their share prices collapsed 50 per cent this week. They need to raise £600m very quickly, or they could go bust.
“I’m sorry, but if you will, on a whim, just debank the Brexit Party, which a few months before had won a national European election, then maybe you will find that what goes around comes around.”
Speaking in 2021, party leader Richard Tice claimed the action was “without question, the result of political pressure”.
He added that the actions were “so extraordinary, so unprecedented, so unusual.
Metro Bank shares have plummeted more than 25 per cent PA“Someone, somewhere has somehow applied pressure.”
A spokesperson for the bank said on the matter at the time: “We regularly review our customer accounts and close those which are no longer commercially viable.
“The decision to close the Brexit Party account was made for commercial reasons only as a business as usual decision.
“Metro Bank is and will remain politically neutral.”
It comes after a banking row which surrounded Nigel Farage’s personal Coutts account which prompted the resignation of chief executive Dame Alison Rose in July.
Her exit came after she admitted to making a “serious error of judgment” in discussing the former Ukip leader’s relationship with bank Coutts, owned by NatWest Group, with a BBC journalist.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA_ has since warned that the watchdog will “act” if financial institutions wrongly deny politicians or their families access to services.
The UK’s financial regulator said it has already persuaded some firms to change how they perform extra checks on so-called politically exposed persons (PEPs).