to refuse to do business with someone over their political views? that s the issue at stake in a row between one of the uk s biggest lenders and controversial politican nigel farage. the former head of the uk independence and brexit parties claims his account at coutts private bank was closed because they didn t like his politics. on thursday night dame alison rose, chief executive of natwest, which owns coutts, offered an apology to mr farage, saying comments made by the bank about him were deeply inappropriate . now mr farage is calling for her to face questioning by members of parliament. the uk government has already announced banks will now face tougher rules, over the closure of customer accounts. here s our analysis editor, ros atkins. i got igota i got a phone call a couple of months ago to say we are closing your accounts. i asked why, the reason was given. nigel farage says it was
described it as holding : this is his view. to make this bank are acting like a political campaigning organisation. the bank says: maybe not solely, but the bbc source said politics had nothing to do with it. we can see that it did. that coutts considered nigel farage s politics a reputational risk. throughout the reporting of this, bbc has highlighted that it is heard from coutts customers who are below the financial threshold and still have their accounts. and now dame alison rose, ceo of natwest, which owns coutts has apologised: