Canary debanking an 'attack on democracy'

As we reported on Tuesday 30 June, Lloyds have debanked the Canary. Few politicians have acknowledged the issue, but the Greens’ Mothin Ali has now spoken out:

Debanking a news outlet is a direct attack on democracy! https://t.co/OM0rfr65i2

— Mothin Ali (@MothinAli) July 2, 2026

Canary debanked

We reported on 30 June that:

Lloyds has not explained why it has taken this action. Despite multiple communications from us, the bank has not been forthcoming with its reasoning.

The Canary is now in a financially precarious situation. We do not know when our money that Lloyds is holding will be returned. Moreover, we do not know how it will affect our ability to get another bank account in the future.

We added:

We do know that multiple other politically engaged people have suffered similar actions by other banks in recent times. It is not lost on us that powerful banks are able to restrict the financial activity of anti-Zionist and pro-Palestine organisations and individuals. Whilst we do not currently know the reasons behind our debanking, we cannot afford to be naive about this.

Initially, Zack Polanski was one of the only politicians to acknowledge what happened. The Manchester Green Party spoke out too:

An attack on freedom of speech.

Notice it's only when they're affected that the right protests.

Where's Nigel Farage? https://t.co/nYD3clLOxt

— Manchester Green Party 🐝 (@McrGreenParty) July 1, 2026

Independent MP Iqbal Mohammed would later issue a message; he would subsequently delete it, but you can see what he said here:

Retweets acknowledging the debanking remain live on his profile.

The only other MP we know of to have acknowledged the debanking was Richard Tice, who said this:

Is this you Canary?
Do you now accept cancel culture exists?
Would you like some help from us who are Right?
Even though you have been utterly foul to us ? https://t.co/bIVrULwQwk

— Richard Tice MP 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) June 30, 2026

You can read our response to what Tice said here. In summary, writer Peter Bolton acknowledged the difference between:

State and corporation-backed repression.
Public discourse turning against individuals.

We’ve never supported the former, and of the latter, Bolton argued that some of those getting ‘cancelled’ really just need to toughen up a bit.

What can you say?

It’s disappointing that more politicians haven’t spoken out, but it’s not surprising. After all, if these people did their jobs, independent outlets which challenge mainstream narratives wouldn’t need to exist. And we’re not just speaking about the centrists and right-wingers here; we’re talking about the supposedly left-leaning politicians who are content to snipe from the sidelines.

As the YouTuber Contrapoints once said:

They don’t want victory, they don’t want power, they want to endlessly “critique” power.

One defence for these politicians is that they don’t know why we were debanked, and as such they need to hold their tongues. The reason this doesn’t hold water is because not knowing is the problem.

Lloyds have removed access to our money without providing justification. We’re not asking for unlimited, unconditional support; we’re asking for politicians to say this shouldn’t happen – not to us, and not to the hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens and businesses who experience the same thing.

If you want to support our efforts, you can do so here.

Featured image via the Canary