The ‘woke Stasi’ at banks like NatWest could come after you next, warns NIGEL FARAGE

They say the truth will out and, on this occasion, it has done so in spectacular style.

My bank, Coutts, working in conjunction with its taxpayer-owned sister bank, NatWest, claimed to the BBC that it was closing my accounts because I had insufficient funds.

Much of the mainstream media swallowed this nonsense whole, but I knew it couldn’t be true so I asked my lawyers to use legal powers to investigate.

After they made a Subject Access Request, I received confirmation that Coutts executives decided to “de-bank” me for personal and political reasons.

This chilling insight into how banks work is so worrying, now even Rishi Sunak has spoken out on my side in what has become a debate around free speech.

It is well known that I was the leading proponent of the Brexit movement.

It is also public knowledge that I am friendly with Donald Trump and the family of Novak Djokovich; and that I have very clear views on matters such as mass immigration and net zero.

Coutts compiled a 40-page Stasi-style dossier on me and then decided to use my beliefs against me.

I know this to be the case because they even admit twice in their secret dossier that I am commercially viable.

Coutts also dived into what is known as the Russia Hoax, apparently taking seriously a false allegation made by the Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant that I received more than £500,000 form the Russian state.

Even though Coutts took the trouble to check Bryant’s ridiculous claim, and despite the fact they state in the dossier at least nine times that there is nothing to it, they left it on the charge sheet. I have no links to Russia. But as far as Coutts is concerned, my word seems to count for nothing.

All this matters because NatWest is still substantially owned by taxpayers after the 2008 banking crisis, when public money was used to bail them out. It is also of paramount importance because thousands of NatWest and Coutts customers share my views.

Anybody reading this article may be one of them. What this means is that if Coutts spied on me (they even noted in their dossier with apparent horror that I had retweeted a Ricky Gervais gag) you’d better believe they can spy on you as well.

They may even have already begun monitoring your social media accounts or, potentially, any political activity you have been involved in.

Britain is supposed to be a beacon of freedom, not a surveillance state. But anyone who reads the Coutts dossier on me wouldn’t know it.

The mainstream media – in particular the BBC and the Financial Times – has big questions to answer. Both these media outlets obediently peddled Coutts’ lies about me a few weeks ago by publicising as fact that my accounts were closed because I had insufficient funds.

Why did neither of them bother to check independently what Coutts was telling them? They simply joined in with the smear campaign, albeit unwittingly.

But it is Dame Alison Rose, the CEO of NatWest, who must bear the heaviest responsibility for this scandal.

She is paid in excess of £5 million a year to run NatWest and, ultimately, Coutts.

Under her stewardship these institutions have become obsessed with “woke” issues.

Why so? In good part because Rose and her colleagues don’t want customers to focus on the fact that this state-owned organisation makes vast profits.

Instead, they want you to think they are a nice, kind, benign outfit which cares about “diversity”. As my dossier shows, they are nothing of the sort.

I am grateful for Rishi Sunak’s words on my case. He is right: this is about freedom of speech.

And I am grateful to the cabinet ministers, MPs and everyone else who has spoken in my favour.

But for this to mean anything, their words must be turned into action. This must never happen again. Remember – this isn’t just about me. It could happen to you, too.