Peter Flavel, the chief executive of Coutts, is set to be the next major figure in the NatWest group to quit over his role in cancelling Nigel Farage’s bank accounts, sources have indicated.
The former Brexit Party leader turned GB News host had been calling for Flavel’s head after NatWest Group chief executive Dame Alison Rose quit early yesterday morning.
Dame Alison resigned after admitting she had revealed Mr Farage’s private banking details to a BBC journalist while Mr Flavel’s position is precarious because of his role in cancelling Mr Farage’s bank accounts.
While it had been claimed Mr Farage had fallen before the wealth threshold for Coutts documents revealed that a major reason was his political beliefs in issues like Brexit.
A source has told Express.co.uk that Mr Flavel is “expected to resign today”.
The taxpayer owns 39 percent of NatWest through the Treasury where ministers have been highly critical of the bank’s actions.
A source near Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said they were unable to confirm Flavel is going but “would not be surprised”.
This morning the Sun also reported Mr Flavel was “not expected to last the week” for his role in the Coutts scandal, with Mr Farage saying his position is “completely unsustainable at every level”.
The chaos at NatWest and Coutts has caused the bank’s stock prices to drop by 3.5 percent, wiping more than £600 million off the bank’s stock market value.
Continued bad press and pressure on the bank over their handling of Mr Farage’s Coutts exiting will prove a continuing distraction for NatWest as they work to recover their lost value.
The resignation of Dame Alison united much of Westminster behind Nigel Farage yesterday, with both the Government and Keir Starmer backing the former Brexit Party leader and saying banks must not close accounts for political differences.
According to the Mail, Jeremy Hunt’s “jaw literally dropped” when he read the NatWest board’s statement voicing its continued confidence in Dame Alison, despite her confession she was behind the BBC’s inaccurate spin of Coutts scandal.
“‘He was flabbergasted. He was incredulous,’ says one source. ‘He simply could not believe what he was reading.'”
Treasury Minister Andrew Griffith, who has been on the front foot since Nigel Farage revealed the story of his bank account closure by announcing new laws to prevent repeat offences by banks, reported sent a text to select journalists the morning after Dame Alison’s resignation announcement simply reading: “Victory”.
A Government source told the Financial Times that while neither Rishi Sunak nor Jeremy Hunt expressly told NatWest that Dame Alison would have to quit, “It was more a case of handing the board a loaded revolver and leaving them to it”.
Nigel Farage has called for the wholesale resignation of the NatWest board for their misjudgement in backing Dame Alison despite her leak confession.
Express.co.uk has contacted Coutts for comment.
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