Nigel Farage de-banking scandal had already hit all international embassies
A former senior diplomat to the UK has revealed that just about each international embassy and Commonwealth High Commission primarily based in London have been instructed by British banks that their accounts can be closed virtually a decade in the past.
The revelation exhibits that the scandal unveiled by Nigel Farage after Coutts tried to close his accounts for political causes has been occurring since at the very least 2014.
According to the diplomat, who led his nation’s mission to the UK on the time, the de-banking scandal hit each embassy and High Commission within the UK from small Caribbean nations to even the US embassy.
They took their considerations to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) however on the time the Government led by David Cameron with George Osborne within the Treasury and Philip Hammond as Foreign Secretary coated up the disaster and requested the diplomats to remain quiet.
But in keeping with the senior former diplomat the problem “is still a problem for the smaller nations to this day.”
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The former diplomat defined that the explanation embassies and High Commissions have been hit “because of money laundering rules introduced by both the UK and EU.”
They stated: “It affected every embassy and High Commission at the Court of St James and threatened to mean that the diplomatic network could not function.
“We smaller nations have been notably badly affected as a result of we don’t all have out personal clearing banks at house and wish native banking to pay the payments.
“The issue is that your country gives you a chunk of money to pay for services and staff, which means you need a British account here to operate.”
Plenty of diplomats ended up having to pay for embassy employees and bills via their very own non-public accounts to manage till the mess was resolved.
Issues just like the Panama Papers scandal had led to a tightening of the principles each within the UK and EU and meant that embassies had come beneath suspicion as a method of cash laundering for legal actions.
The scandal is even understood to have hit the US embassy which ultimately managed to get an account with Metro Bank after its founder Vernon Hill stepped in.
For a time there was a Metro Bank department throughout the embassy.
The former diplomat stated: “We lost our account with HSBC and I spent a lot of time trying to find a new bank but they all said ‘no’.
“In the tip, we and a variety of different nations went to the Egypt Bank on the nook of Edgeware Road as a result of no British financial institution would give us an account.”
Smaller Commonwealth countries like Jamaica and Belize are said to have made the loudest fuss about it.
But, the diplomat noted: “The Government was eager to cowl it up and we have been all requested to remain quiet about it till it might be resolved.”
In the end, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHoGM) in Malta in 2015 saw a showdown with Mr Cameron and different Governments on the issue.
The source said: “Baroness Patricia Scotland had simply been put in because the Secretary General of the Commonwealth and he or she instructed Cameron in no unsure phrases that this wanted to be sorted out.
“She has been very good in all her time at protecting the interests of the smaller countries because the big players like the UK, Australia and Canada really do not understand the difficulties smaller countries have.”
The ex-diplomat added: “Despite this, there are a number of smaller countries in the UK who cannot get British banks to give them accounts for their embassies.”
Express.co.uk has requested the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for a response however has not acquired one.