THE Tories heaped “astonishing” pressure on NatWest’s Dame Alison Rose before she resigned as chief executive over the row centring on Nigel Farage, senior Labour MPs claimed today.

Ms Rose acknowledged a “serious error of judgement” by discussing with a BBC journalist former Ukip leader Mr Farage’s relationship with private bank Coutts, which is part of the NatWest Group, as she stood down.

With Downing Street and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt having expressed “significant concerns” about her remaining in the post hours earlier, shadow trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds questioned why No 10 and the Treasury heaped pressure on Ms Rose when they were “slow to act” in pushing out scandal-hit ministers.

He told Sky News:  “It’s astonishing, isn’t it, to see last night the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister under pressure from outside weighing in so quickly against a business leader like Dame Alison Rose?

“When you think about the situations we’ve had in government, whether it’s with Nadhim Zahawi, whether it’s with Gavin Williamson, whether it’s with Dominic Raab, when the government certainly hasn’t been holding itself to that same standard.

“It was a matter between Dame Alison Rose and the NatWest board.

“The Chancellor and the Prime Minister never showed such a desire to intervene when they had their own problems.

“When it comes to dealing decisively with colleagues in government, the Prime Minister has invariably been slow to act but when it came to this situation last night with a business leader they moved straight in.”

Labour MP Darren Jones claimed that the intervention was because of the “power Farage seems to have over the Tories,” and while he does not question that Ms Rose “did something wrong,” he questioned why “the PM got involved.”

With a 38.6 per cent stake, the government remains the biggest shareholder in NatWest after the taxpayer bailed out the bank during the 2008 financial crisis.

Referring to the government’s complete ownership of the Post Office, Mr Jones, who chairs the Commons business and trade committee, tweeted: “Has the PM told the CEO to pay back bonuses based on false accounts? Or asked him to resign?

“No. Spot the difference.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said today he believed the bank was in the “wrong” and that Ms Rose had no choice but to resign.

He said: “As a broad principle, nobody should be refused banking because of their political views.”