A leader of the Anglican church has accused the Yorkshire Building Society of bullying after the bank announced the closure of his account within 14 days after he protested against its alleged promotion of transgender "ideology."
In June, the Rev. Richard Fothergill, who has been a longstanding customer of the building society, sent his bank a letter complaining about its public messaging during Pride month.
Four days later, the 62-year-old said he received a reply informing him of the closure of his internet savings account, The Times reported.
"'I wasn't even aware that our relationship had a problem," Fothergill said, according to the Daily Mail, while accusing the financial institution of "bullying."
"They are a financial house — they are not there to do social engineering. I think they should concentrate their efforts on managing money, instead of promoting LGBT ideology. I know cancel culture exists," he continued, "and this is my first firsthand experience of it. I wouldn't want this bullying to happen to anyone else."
The retired vicar maintains that his comments were a polite rebuttal to the content on YBS's website and prepared in such a manner to contest the bank's involvement in LGBTQ+ ideology.
But the bank wasn't having it. In response to Fothergill, it wrote that its customer relationship with him had "irrevocably broken down" and that it has a "zero tolerance approach to discrimination."
Fothergill's response was prompted by a monthly email from YBS requesting feedback. According to him, he wrote a few paragraphs expressing his disagreement with the idea of trans ideology, insisting that he had been "polite all the way through" and that the bank should be "worrying about financial issues" — not cultural matters.
But YBS, the company responsible for managing the savings of over 3 million customers, disputed Fothergill's account of the incident, noting, according to a spokesman, that "we never close savings accounts based on different opinions regarding beliefs or feedback provided by our customers."
"We only ever make the difficult decision to close a savings account if a customer is rude, abusive, violent or discriminates in any way, based on the specific facts, comments, and behavior in each case."
Similarly to Fothergill, according to broadcaster and former British politician Nigel Farage, three members of his family had their U.K. bank accounts closed. This comes amid accusations that banks are terminating accounts of customers who express views on gender, LGBTQ+ issues, or opinions on Brexit with which the banks disagree.
Farage has not named the bank responsible for these transgressions. But according to the Mail, it is believed to be Coutts, a private bank whose clients include members of the Royal Family.
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