LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - British banks should have to serve a customer even if they disagree with his or her lawful political views, financial services minister Andrew Griffith said on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday Nigel Farage, the former Brexit party leader, said British private bank Coutts had told him it was closing his accounts and had offered him a standard one with its parent group NatWest instead.
The House of Lords' Economic Affairs Committee asked Griffith for his views on recent issues around banking services for politicians, without naming Farage directly.
"To be a holder of a banking licence is a privilege. It confers rights and obligations. One of those obligations, in a lawful democratic society, should be the freedom of expression. So as a sole ground for the withdrawal of banking facilities, that is not acceptable," Griffith said.
"If executives within organisations hold themselves out to be 'fit and proper', then they would not seek to suppress the lawful expression of democratic views," he added, referring to the conduct standards bank executives must meet.
(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Huw Jones)
