accounts, which he says were dead on political grounds. the board, led by sir howard davies, said he had full confidence in dame alison rose, despite the row and despite her own admission she had spoken to a bbc journalist about nigel farage s affairs. but alex later that backing was taken away and it was agreed to a natlacen should step down. the chief executive of coutts stepped down shortly afterwards which brought a lot of pressure to bear on sir howard, but he defended the initial decision to back dane allison, which he said was rational but that the political reaction made her position untenable. natwest is partially owned by the government, it has about 838% stake. he also insisted he would be staying on, so clarity for the moment on the day that natwest unveiled its profit figures for the first half of the