Nigel Farage lobbied senior Tory minister over NatWest complaint

Emily Thornberry accuses Farage and Andrew Griffith of ‘secretly conspiring’ over de-banking issue

Nigel Farage privately lobbied a senior Tory treasury minister for help with his de-banking complaint against NatWest, asking him for advice “before I go public”.

WhatsApp messages shared with the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act show the former Brexit party leader contacted Andrew Griffith, then economic secretary to the Treasury, to discuss allegations that Coutts, NatWest’s private bank subsidiary, had closed his accounts because of his politics.