Keith Misselbrook

Apologies for spoiling the morning for so many on Twitter. BUT: UK economy is now bigger than before the Covid-19 crisis. Indeed UK growth higher than Germany and France, new revisions to official data reveal. GDP 1.8% per cent larger than final months of 2019 (ONS). Britain’s GDP reached its pre-Covid size way back in the final months of 2021. So much for being worst performing economy in the G7, which is actually Germany, whose economy is about the same size as before the pandemic. UK has also outpaced France, post-pandemic. UK growth still nothing to write home about. But that's true of almost every major economy post-pandemic. As I say -- apologies. I know how much this will upset so many of you. But cheer up. The weekend beckons .

Nat West CEO Alison Rose resigns only hours after Board hadn’t guts to fire her despite her admitting she’d briefed BBC about N Farage account. Howard Davies, chairman of the NatWest Group Board, says she’s leaving “by mutual consent”. Spotlight now falls on Coutts CEO Peter Flavel (who’s been invisible during the bank’s crisis) and, indeed, Davies and his do-nothing Board.

I’ve now been through the NatWest/Coutts dossier on Nigel Farage twice now. It is clear beyond doubt that, even though they could find no real “dirt” on him, they still wanted to “debank” him because they didn’t like his politics — and came up with the ruse of using an expiring mortgage to close his account this month (July). Farage curtailed this process by paying off the mortgage earlier than necessary, unaware of the consequences for his Coutts accounts. On Nov 17 2022 the bank put its plan in place: “Recommendation is to retain N[igel] F[arage] for now. However, it was noted that NF currently has a mortgage with Coutts, which is due to expire in July 2023 and which, on a commercial basis, we would not look to renew and so would suggest winding down the connection on that basis.” The Bank then says it had put great store on his Russia connections but admits it could find “nothing substantive” to pin on him. So the bank then details the fallback plan it has hatched: “Six months before the expiry of NF’s mortgage with Coutts, they would indicate to NF that we are not renewing the mortgage [allowing the Bank to exit] NF next year on commercial grounds when the mortgage rolls off.” The Banks then again admits the real reason: “[It] did not think continuing to bank NF was compatible with Coutts given his publicly-stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation.” (Coutts is actually one of the least inclusive banks in the world, as Farage was founding out) Coutts claims “this was not a political decision but one centred around inclusivity and purpose”. Pause for laughter. “The Chair concluded as follows [the Committee was unanimous]: After the expiry of the mortgage with Coutts, NF would not be a criteria client and we should set a glide path to exiting NF when that mortgage expires.” So the mortgage was the pretext. His politics were the real reason.

This is what the consummate leader of a democracy at war looks like.