By Katie Razzall & Emma Saunders
Culture and media editor and culture reporter
The BBC has apologised to Nigel Farage over its inaccurate report about why his account at Coutts bank was closed.
On 4 July, the BBC reported Mr Farage no longer met the financial requirements for Coutts, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The ex-UKIP leader later obtained a Coutts report which indicated his political views were also considered.
Mr Farage said he accepted the apologies “with good grace” and told the BBC questions for Coutts remain.
He thanked BBC News CEO Deborah Turness – who has written to him – and business editor Simon Jack for their apologies.
“It’s not often that the BBC apologise. But for the BBC to apologise, I’m very, very pleased,” Mr Farage said.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, Mr Farage said he had to publish a lot of material in order to clear up misinformation.
“I had to go to very great lengths and great personal damage to undo the story,” Mr Farage said.
“There is no fault or no blame on the BBC. This now goes right back to the Natwest Banking Group.
“Someone in that group decided it was appropriate, legal and ethical to leak details of my personal financial situation. That I think is wrong on every level and that is where the spotlight should be and it will.
Mr Jack, who tweeted his apology, said his story was “from a trusted and senior source”.
“However, the information turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate. Therefore, I would like to apologise to Mr Farage,” Mr Jack continued.
Mr Farage added: “Jack says, in the tweet, that his information came from a trusted and senior source. I would suggest that it may well have been a very senior source. More on this a bit later.”
On 21 July, the BBC updated its original article to say it had “not been accurate”. Mr Farage then asked for a formal apology from the BBC.
On Monday, the BBC said on its Corrections and Clarifications website: “We acknowledge that the information we reported – that Coutts’ decision on Mr Farage’s account did not involve considerations about his political views – turned out not to be accurate and have apologised to Mr Farage.”
When Coutts, which is owned by NatWest, decided to close Mr Farage’s account, he said it did not give him a reason.
At the time, Mr Farage told Radio 4 the BBC had fallen for “spin” and he had been “cancelled” for his political views.
Mr Farage subsequently obtained a document looking at his suitability as a Coutts customer.
The 40-page document provided to Mr Farage included minutes from a meeting in November last year reviewing his account.
The document flagged concerns that he was “xenophobic and racist”, and also raised concerns about the reputational risk of having Mr Farage as a client.
It said that to have Mr Farage as a customer was not consistent with Coutts’ “position as an inclusive organisation” given his “publicly stated views”.
The boss of NatWest Group, Dame Alison Rose, apologised on Thursday to Mr Farage for what she called the “deeply inappropriate” comments.
She also said that she was commissioning a full review of Coutts’ processes on bank account closures.
Mr Farage has called for Dame Alison to be questioned by MPs.
The Treasury has also called a meeting with bank bosses over account closures, following the row between Mr Farage and NatWest.
The BBC will hope its apology will draw a line under the story.
The journalist behind the report was given misleading information from a source he trusted. That source said politics had nothing to do with the bank’s decision-making process and that Mr Farage’s account was being closed only for commercial reasons.
The fallout is an insight into a key tenet of journalism – sourcing stories. Reporters have to be able to trust their sources and it’s standard journalistic practice not to reveal who they are.
In this case, that trust broke down.
