Nigel Farage row sparks hundreds of NatWest personal data requests

Banking group NatWest has received hundreds of requests for copies of personal data under data protection laws, the BBC understands.

It follows a row between the group and the Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.

The former UKIP leader claims his account at Coutts - a private bank owned by NatWest - was shut down because of his political views.

It is unclear whether the requests have been made by former or current customers.

When Coutts decided to close Mr Farage's account, it did not give him a reason.

Mr Farage subsequently requested a copy of information held on him by the bank.

Under data protection law, this is known as a subject access request.

A document he obtained included minutes from a meeting in November last year reviewing his suitability as a client.

It stated continuing to have Mr Farage as a customer was not consistent with Coutts's "position as an inclusive organisation" given his "publicly stated views".

It mentioned Mr Farage's retweet of a Ricky Gervais joke about trans women and his friendship with tennis player Novak Djokovic, who is opposed to Covid vaccinations.

It gave several examples, including his comparing Black Lives Matter protesters to the Taliban, and his characterisation of the RNLI as a "taxi-service" for illegal immigrants, to flag concerns that he was "xenophobic and racist".

Coutts was also concerned about the reputational risk of having Mr Farage as a client.

The chief executive of Natwest, Dame Alison Rose, has since apologised for what she called the "deeply inappropriate" comments.

On Thursday, Mr Farage implied that thousands of others had also had their accounts closed by NatWest - and urged them to file their own subject access requests.

The BBC understands that the bank has experienced a noticeable increase in such requests.

The numbers are thought to be in the hundreds, rather than thousands.

It is unknown how many people making the requests have had their accounts closed.