Ex-NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose who resigned over Nigel Farage row could bank £2.4m

Nigel Farage has described as “a sick joke” revelations that ex-NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose could receive a pay package worth more than £2.4m in the wake of her resignation over her handling of his de-banking row.

Dame Alison resigned last month, abruptly ending her four-year tenure, amid government pressure on her position.

It followed her admission that she had discussed the former UKIP party leader’s bank details with a BBC journalist as Mr Farage complained he was being frozen out of the banking system for his political views.

She suggested his account at the bank’s Coutts division had been closed only for commercial, rather than any political, reasons.

But Mr Farage said a subject access request from the NatWest Group had declared his account was “commercially viable” and the dossier suggested he was ditched because his political beliefs did not align with the lender’s own.

Her subsequent resignation also followed criticism that she had broken the first rule of banking – client confidentiality.

The bank, which gave no details of her remuneration arrangements at the time, said on Wednesday that Dame Alison was seeing out her 12 month notice period as per her contract.

It revealed on Wednesday that she was due to receive £1.155m in salary for the year, £1.155m in NatWest shares and pension payments of £115,566.

The share awards are due to vest over a five-year period, the group added.

But it said the board was yet to decide if it would attempt to claw back past bonus awards related to her performance and added the sums expected were not guaranteed.

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The statement said: “Ms Rose’s notice period and the payments she will continue to receive for the notice period will be reviewed on a continuing basis, having regard to the internal and external investigations relating to the account closure arrangements at Coutts and associated events.

“Decisions on these awards, along with any decisions regarding other remuneration matters, will be made taking into account the findings of the investigations, as appropriate.”

Mr Farage gave his reaction on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, writing: “The £2.4m payout to Dame Alison Rose is a sick joke.

“This is the corrupt British establishment looking after its own.”

His words were accompanied by remarks in a video in which he claimed the bank’s inquiry had been “kicked into the long grass” and that she was effectively being rewarded for lying to the BBC.

“Any employee of NatWest that had done what she’d done would have been out the door, fired, and would not even have received their month’s money,” he argued.

He had called for the bank’s entire board to go after Dame Alison quit but it is believed that such a move would not have been allowed by financial regulators in any event.

Such a drastic step would have risked turmoil at the lender, which remains part-owned by the taxpayer following its financial crisis-era bailout.

Chairman Sir Howard Davies, who was already due to step down next year, told investors there was intense political pressure behind Dame Alison’s decision to quit.

Treasury minister Andrew Griffith said at the time: “This would never have happened if NatWest had not taken it upon itself to withdraw a bank account due to someone’s lawful political views. That was and is always unacceptable.”