Emily Maitlis has accused Nigel Farage of turning “utter entitlement into victimhood” following the Coutts banking fiasco.
Speaking on her News Agents podcast, the ex-BBC presenter said NatWest’s breach of customer confidentiality was “egregious”, but criticised the resulting furore.
Coutts, a private wealth management firm owned by NatWest, has apologised for releasing the ex-Ukip leader’s personal details, with Dame Alison Rose having resigned from her post as CEO.
The former face of Newsnight accused Mr Farage of using the decision by the “posh private bank” to whip up a “populist storm”.
She told listeners that at the heart of the controversy was the “choice by one private bank to say no to one customer”.
Speaking earlier this week, Ms Maitlis said Coutts had decided to part ways after deciding Mr Farage was “costing them too much and wasn’t bringing them in enough money”.
She argued that his resulting argument about “liberty, about free speech, about censorship” was unfounded, as private banking is not a “public utility”.
She said: “No one was shutting him down, no one was stopping him from banking, no one was calling him names.
“They simply waited until he paid off a mortgage – having decided ahead of time that they would call it quits at that point.”
“And this isn’t a public utility, it’s not electricity. It’s a posh private bank. It’s in the name.
“Yet the power of the populist is to somehow turn utter entitlement into victimhood. And that is quite the move.”
While Dame Angela has resigned, the controversy has not subsided, with Mr Farage insistent that the NatWest board step down.
He has complained the board, which stood by Dame Alison before she resigned, “endorsed a plain untruth” when it stood by her insistence that the bank did not disclose his bank details to BBC business editor Simon Jack.
He said: “The first rule of banking is you have to obey client confidentiality. So they have made a complete and utter mess of this.”
In her apology, Dame Alison said she recognised she “made a serious error of judgment” when discussing Mr Farage’s banking relationship with Coutts.
She said: “I want to extend my sincere apologies to Mr Farage for the personal hurt this has caused him and I have written to him today. I would like to say sorry to the Board and my colleagues.”
