So will BBC now say sorry for its 'misleading' reports over
So will BBC now say sorry for its ‘misleading’ reports over its reporting of the closure of Nigel Farage’s Coutts account?
- Internal documents have revealed the real reason Mr Farage was dropped
The BBC is coming under increasing pressure over its reporting on the closure of Nigel Farage’s Coutts account.
After receiving an apology from the chief executive of the bank’s owner NatWest, the former Ukip leader turned the screw on the corporation, spending the day singling out the journalist who had reported he had not met the bank’s financial threshold and calling for the BBC to apologise.
Mr Farage did get one apology, from former BBC journalist Jon Sopel, after the newsman had previously mocked the politician off the back of the broadcaster’s reports, saying he ‘must feel a bit of a Charlie’.
Mr Sopel said it would ‘teach’ him to ‘trust reporting of my old employer’.
Internal documents have revealed the real reason Mr Farage was dropped by the bank was because his views did not ‘align with its purpose and values’.
The BBC is coming under increasing pressure over its reporting on the closure of Nigel Farage’s Coutts account
But the BBC has been accused of going along with the ‘financial threshold’ line, unquestioningly reporting the Coutts’ ‘spin’ and of being ‘happy to rubbish Nigel Farage’s claims’.
READ MORE: Coutts bank boss says SORRY to Nigel Farage for ‘deeply inappropriate’ report about him and insists she ‘values freedom of expression’ – as government announces crackdown on customers’ accounts being closed
Senior Tory Peter Bone said: ‘The BBC reported [Coutts’] spin happily without investigating what actually happened. They were happy to rubbish Nigel Farage’s claims without looking into them.’
Mr Farage, 59, has already asked for an apology and to have the original BBC story corrected. He has also said he will be making a complaint.
While the broadcaster formally declined to comment on the matter, it yesterday amended the headline on its original online story to ‘make clear that the details about the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account came from a source’.
The headline now reads: ‘Nigel Farage bank account shut for falling below wealth limit, source tells BBC.’
This original story was reported by its business editor, Simon Jack. It has subsequently been reported that NatWest chief Dame Alison Rose sat next to Mr Jack at a charity dinner at London’s Langham hotel the night before his story ran on July 4.
A mockup depicting the reasons why Mr Farage was ‘banned’ from his bank Coutts
Yesterday Mr Farage posted a message to Mr Jack, 52, on Twitter. It said: ‘Dear Simon, Every other journalist that had accepted the Coutts spin on July 4th about the closure of my accounts has now changed their story.
You have not done so. Was your dinner with Dame Alison Rose, the NatWest chief, on the evening of July 3, where you were given the brief? Do you now accept that the reason for closure was not lack of funds?’
A source at the BBC said any complaint by Mr Farage would be dealt with by the usual processes and pointed out that the corporation was continuing to report the story and reflect the current situation.
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