The Free Speech Union has just discovered that the changes to the banking rules that would have made it more difficult for payment processors to debank customers for political reasons weren’t made before parliament was dissolved last week. 

We repeat, they have not been made. 

Persuading the government to toughen up these rules was one of the Free Speech Union’s biggest victories to date, but thanks to the snap election it has fallen by the wayside. 

So we’ve started a petition urging all the major political parties to include a promise in their manifestoes to make those changes and we urge all of you to sign it.

Background

In March of this year, the Government announced it would amend the Payment Services Regulations to stop banks and payment processors from closing users’ accounts for political reasons. These changes to the Regulations were colloquially referred to as ‘Farage’s Law’, but although Nigel Farage deserves credit for fighting back against the attempt to debank him, it was as much a result of lobbying from the Free Speech Union. We were victims of an attempted debanking in 2022.

HM Treasury set out its intentions in a Policy Note in March. The Payment Services Regulations would be amended, it said, to make it impossible for providers to debank people for political reasons: “The government has been unequivocal in its view that customers should not see a payment service terminated on grounds relating to their lawful freedom of expression including, for example, political beliefs.”

Using powers created by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the government planned to lay a statutory instrument (SI) that would have increased the notice period providers are required to give users whose accounts they’re terminating from two months to 90 days and, further, guaranteed those account-holders would be given a “detailed and specific explanation”, making it harder to fob them off with excuses about breaching terms and conditions. 

The Policy Note contains a draft of the SI and said: “The government intends to lay this instrument before Parliament in Summer 2024, subject to parliamentary timing…”

But it was not laid before parliament was dissolved last week.

Call to Action

We urge all the major political parties to include a promise in their manifestoes to enact this secondary legislation in the next parliamentary session. Even though it was a Conservative government that promised to lay this SI, there was nothing partisan about the proposed changes – they were recommended by the Treasury after a widespread consultation and enjoyed cross-party support. It scarcely needs saying, but debanking threatens people of all political persuasions – as well as people of faith – not just those on the right.

Amending the Payment Services Regulations to protect freedom of expression should be a priority for all the major political parties. Unless we stop payment services providers from punishing people for exercising their right to lawful free speech, it won’t be long before we see the emergence of a Chinese-style social credit system in the UK. 

Please sign the petition and urge all your friends to do so.