(LifeSiteNews) — A British politician and Brexit supporter has been debanked due to his political views, according to emails revealed through a Subject Access Request.
The Sun newspaper reports that Richard Tice applied for a business loan at financial giant Swiss Re in April 2022 and was rejected because he was seen as a “reputational risk.”
Tice was one of the leaders of the Brexit movement together with Nigel Farage, who has also been debanked, and now heads the Reform UK party, formerly known as the Brexit party.
Swiss Re was forced to reveal internal documents about Tice after he submitted a Subject Access Request (SAR). Under the U.K.’s General Data Protection Regulation, every citizen has the right to receive all personal information an organization has about them by submitting a SAR.
The Reform UK leader slammed Swiss Re for denying him service because of his political views, arguing that this trend severely hurts the British economy.
“This is one of the reasons we are struggling to grow as an economy – because people and businesses are being weighed down by all this bureaucracy, and it is all down to wokeness,” Tice told The Sun.
“Because of wokeness, I am deemed a reputational risk,” he continued.
“I am a man who has made money, brought in investment, created jobs, and built many homes in this country. If that is how they think of people who are successful businessmen, then God help us all.”
“It is insane,” Tice concluded.
READ: Debanking of Nigel Farage: Did globalist elites overplay their hand?
The Reform UK party leader had previously accused Metro Bank of shutting down his account because of this political affiliation, the Daily Mail reports.
U.K. Treasury Minister Andrew Griffith criticized Tice’s debanking. He told The Sun, “We have repeatedly made clear that nobody should not have access to banking due to their political views.”
“Whether or not an institution agrees with the views of Mr. Tice or his party, as someone who is engaged in the democratic process and expressing lawful views, that couldn’t cause any reputational risk.”
The de-banking scandal: Nigel Farge, Joseph Mercola, and now Richard Tice
Tice is a close friend and ally of former Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who was debanked by Coutts in June 2023. Farage too was able to confirm that his accounts were shut down due to his political views through a SAR.
The publication of internal documents about Farage caused a significant political scandal that led to the resignations of the CEOs of both Coutts and its parent company, NatWest. The Brexit champion has repeatedly warned that a “cashless society” would bring tyranny upon the Western world and may usher in a Chinese-style social credit system.
Farage has since started an initiative to fight the debanking trend that saw thousands of citizens lose their bank accounts due to their political views.
Farage and Tice are not the only high-profile figures to be debanked recently, and the phenomenon is certainly not limited to the United Kingdom.
In July 2023, it became public that Dr. Joseph Mercola, a world-famous physician and outspoken critic of the COVID tyranny, was a target of a debanking attack as well.
JPMorgan Chase Bank canceled accounts of Mercola’s business, its employees, and even some of their family members.
Chase shut down the bank accounts of Mercola Market’s CEO, Steven Rye, and his wife. Rye was furthermore told that his kids would not be allowed to open accounts at Chase in the future.