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 politically motivated. that was late june. politically motivated. that was latejune.
over 3% in december. we spoke to investment manager shanti kelemen. she told us the fall in shop prices is a positive development, as the bank of england weighs up when it can start cutting the cost of borrowing. i think it s absolutely good news. i mean, one quirk of psychology is that even though inflation isn t going up because prices arejust sort of constant, it might not feel a lot better because the price is still higher than it was two years ago. with the changes and how people are expecting the future to unfold, the interest rates people pay our mortgages have already fallen a bit, similarly the rates the government is paying for borrowing are also coming down a bit from last year, so that in itself will provide a little bit of relief, even before the bank of england changes interest rates. but will that downward trend in shop price inflation continue? we all know about the supply chain disruptions in the red sea. and the picture could be further complicated from toni
good morning. iam good morning. i am out of the very front and to get this prized position you had to be here two days ago, at a 7am on saturday morning. it won t be long before this lot are inside. that is wherejohn and carol r. yes, good morning. the big news on day one of these wimbledon championships is the withdrawal of nick kyrgios. the beaten finalist last year and the amount s singles is out because of a wrist injury after what has been an injury ravaged season. and will it stay dry? well, actually, we are expecting some showers this afternoon at wimbledon. for most, rain in the north of scotland, rain in northern ireland putting eastwards. behind all of that, sunshine and showers. a day for taking the brolly. more later. good morning. it s monday, the 3rd ofjuly. it appears to have been a calmer night across france, after the family of a teenager shot dead by police said they did not want his death to spark riots. police made around 80 arrests overnight, down from mo
controversial end to the second ashes series. welcome back to verify life. a watchdog has found that uk drivers paid more for fuel at supermarkets last year because of a lack of competition between retailers. the competition and markets authority says drivers paid an average of an extra six pence a litre for fuel, with diesel 13 pence a litre more expensive. the government is now promising a change in the law to increase competition. simon williams, the rac s fuel spokesperson, gave us this reaction. yes, consumers have been overcharged for some considerable time. the rac has a programme called fuelwatch. we monitor the price of retailfuel but also, crucially, the price of wholesale fuel. and for the last three months, the price of diesel on the wholesale market has been lower than petrol. yet if you go to virtually any forecourt across the uk, you will see diesel being priced above petrol. now, that is simply not right, it s not fair. it doesn t reflect what s going on at al