A whistleblower at Monzo has disclosed that staff members openly ridiculed the Conservative Party in internal communications, contributing to the ongoing ‘debanking’ scandal.
Messages shared on a Slack forum in October, published by The Telegraph, reveal staff sentiments about the Tory party. One employee remarked, “Maybe JRM [Jacob Rees Mogg] could do the human race a favour and stay out of politics forever. Doubt you could replace him with anyone who is more of an archetypal Tory.” The same individual later described the Conservative Party as “evil” and “ugly.”
In the wake of Conservative election losses in May, another staff member reacted to a meme with, “What’s great about this gif is that the Tories have lost Maidenhead,” while another stated, “Tory losses in the local elections – we love to see ittttt.”
In March, an engineer commented that the Spring budget was distracting the public from “the general state of the country,” and in January, another employee expressed hope that the Tories could be toppled, adding, “I’m not sure anyone can survive under the Tories for much longer.”
This revelation follows the account of UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who claimed he was denied a bank account by Monzo when he was a backbencher last year, alleging that he received different treatment due to being a ‘politically exposed person.’
The ‘debanking’ issue gained prominence after Nigel Farage alleged that his Coutts account was closed due to his political beliefs, leading to the resignation of NatWest and Coutts leaders.
Moreover, the whistleblower provided a dossier containing comments from a senior manager in April 2022 stating, “the Tories are evidently swaying towards arguments put forward by Terfs,” with “Terf” referring to trans-exclusionary radical feminists, a controversial label. Earlier this year, The Telegraph reported that Monzo faced reprimand from the data watchdog after employees referred to a man criticizing transgender-inclusive policies as a “horrible Terf.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office has responded by urging the bank to reassess and enhance its internal procedures and staff training regarding this matter.
Members of Parliament have raised concerns about the culture within banks, with Conservative MP Gareth Johnson stating, “Banks should not behave like political activists. It is time the Treasury took action against those banks who increasingly seem to have a Left-wing agenda. Is it too much to ask banks to just get on with banking and to stop their political activism?”