Has Gina Miller also fallen victim to ‘debanking’?

It might come as some small comfort to Nigel Farage to discover that it’s not just those on his side of the Brexit debate who have fallen victim to potential ‘debanking’. The former Brexit leader may now have an unlikely ally in Gina Miller, the anti-Brexit campaigner and his arch enemy during the referendum years.

Miller has revealed that she too will have a bank account closed in September without any explanation. Earlier this month, Monzo bank sent her an email announcing that they will be shutting the account for her ‘True and Fair’ party but that ‘unfortunately we can’t tell you why’.

According to the BBC, Monzo’s email said: ‘We can’t share the specific reason for closing your account. As a bank we regularly review and sometimes close accounts as part of our legal and regulatory responsibilities.’

Miller said that a number of banks refused to allow her to open a bank account for her party, until Monzo successfully approved her application in November 2021. It was only after the BBC went to the bank for comment that Monzo revealed all, saying, ‘Like lots of banks, we do not accept any political parties as Monzo Business customers in the same way that we don’t currently accept trusts, clubs and a range of other organisations.’

The bank continued: ‘In this case, the account wasn’t originally categorised as a political party. After this was identified and corrected, the customer was given notice that the account would be closed. We recognise that this experience will have been frustrating for the customer and we’re sorry for that.’ Ouch.

Just days after Farage said that ‘you effectively become a non-person’ without a bank account, Miller has called on the government to step in, saying, ‘We do not have a functioning democracy if you cannot access a bank account’.

In this latest twist in the story, Mr Steerpike dares to hope that we could see Farage and Miller join forces to take on the banks. My enemy’s enemy and all that?