A club Dickens loved

The Athenaeum on Pall Mall has stood since 1824. Charles Dickens wrote of it: one meets so many people there that one likes to see.

“One meets so many people there, that one likes to see.”

Now its members are furious

Two centuries of calm broke over a single new name on the membership list. The club admitted Dame Alison Rose, former chief executive of NatWest.

Why her name stings

Rose resigned from NatWest three years ago over the Nigel Farage debanking scandal, one of the most politically charged banking rows in recent British memory.

What she admitted

She was the source of a BBC report that wrongly said Farage's Coutts account was shut because he failed to meet the bank's wealth threshold.

The apolitical tradition

Members say her conduct runs directly against the club's traditions, chief among them that the Athenaeum stays out of politics entirely.

“directly against the traditions of the club”

The chairman in the crossfire

Sir Philip May, husband of former prime minister Theresa May, chairs the club. Members accuse him of totally ignoring their objections.

The woke charge

Critics inside the club frame May's push as a woke agenda, turning a membership decision into a culture war fought over port and panelling.

Thirty signatures

In February last year, 30 members signed a letter to Sir Philip warning of their strong opposition before Rose was ever admitted.

“strong opposition”

Unsuitable, they wrote

The letter called Rose unsuitable to become a member and warned her reputation would bring the club into disrepute.

“unsuitable to become a member”

Not clever enough

Signatories also argued she lacked the intellectual credentials the club requires, a pointed insult in a place that calls itself a club of the mind.

“a club of the mind”

The membership bar

Applicants are meant to be eminent in the arts, science, politics or religion, or to be a patron of one of them. Wealth alone is not the entry ticket.

Who came before

Past members include Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, JMW Turner and Sir Noel Coward. That is the standard being invoked.

The letter went nowhere

Leadership did not act on it. Rose was admitted anyway, and the quiet objection became an open revolt.

Money-grabbing, say members

Present and former members claim she was let in for her banking wealth and her DEI job at a City law firm, evidence of a money-grabbing club.

“but with her banking wealth and her new job in DEI, May was happy to tread down any objection to her joining”

Dictatorial, they claim

Several members went further, accusing Sir Philip of running the club in a dictatorial fashion while pursuing a left-wing agenda.

“dictatorial fashion”

How the scandal began

In July 2023, Farage obtained NatWest's internal papers showing his Coutts account had been closed partly because of his political views.

The resignation

Rose stood down as chief executive after admitting she was behind the inaccurate story that recast the closure as a purely commercial decision.

The law that never came

The Tories planned to force banks to give longer notice before closing accounts, but the plan died when Rishi Sunak called and lost the July election.

What the regulator found

The FCA said most firms it reviewed did not over-check politically exposed persons or refuse them accounts, though almost all could treat politicians better.

One rule did change

In December 2023 the law was changed so UK politically exposed persons must be treated as inherently lower risk than overseas ones.

“inherently lower risk”