Monzo staff comms reveal anti-Tory messages as de-banking scandal grows
Monzo staff made multiple disparaging remarks about the Conservative party, according to reported internal company messages, as a growing row about lenders closing individuals bank accounts engulfs the banking sector.
The internal communications, reported by The Telegraph, show staff describing Tories as “evil”, and called for Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg to “do the human race a favour” by quitting politics.
The messages were sent on the work messaging platform Slack in October last year.
The revelation comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that the digital bank had refused to give him an account.
“If the price of going into public life is that you find it really hard to set up a bank account, then we need to make sure that we remove barriers where we can. I think that’s why I was declined by Monzo for an account last year,” Hunt told the Financial Times in an interview last month.
The report adds to the growing row over ‘de-banking’, which has come to the political foreground after Coutts, which is owned by Natwest, was revealed to have closed Nigel Farage’s bank accounts partly because his views did not align with the banks.
Natwest chief Dame Alison Rose and Coutts boss Peter Flavel were forced to resign over the affair.
Farage responded to The Telegraph story, tweeting: “I’m afraid I’m not in the least bit surprised about this. Corporate Britain has suffered a complete takeover.”
Monzo said it does not comment on matters relating to individuals accounts.
A spokesperson for the bank said: “Our ambition is to make money work for everyone, which means that we’re politically neutral and personal views play no part in our policies or decision making, including eligibility for a Monzo account. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically untrue.”
“These cherry-picked comments that were reported earlier this week, are personal views of a handful of employees in informal conversations and it is wrong to portray them as the views of Monzo or our thousands of other employees,” they added.
Chancellor Jerome Hunt commented: “Free speech is a fundamental human right. You can agree or disagree with Nigel Farage, but everyone must be able to express their opinions.
“In today’s society, you need a bank account function and so a threat to be de-banked is a threat to your right to express your opinions. We have regulations – Regulation 18 of the Payments Accounts Regulations – that ban this so called de-banking of people for their political views.
“I’ve written to the regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority – they have the right to fine banks very large sums of money if they find this practice is widespread. I want to know if it is, and I want to know what they are doing about it.”