NatWest takes £24m hit from abandoned ‘Tell Sid’-style campaign

Bank left with costs from Sir Trevor McDonald-fronted campaign after early election halted rollout

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NatWest was forced to spend £24m on the former Conservative government’s aborted “Tell Sid”-style campaign featuring Sir Trevor McDonald, which would have resulted in a chunk of the bank’s state-owned shares being sold to the general public in a highly anticipated privatisation drive.

The price tag emerged when the bank released its second-quarter results and announced that it was snapping up a number of mortgages from the smaller rival Metro Bank for £2.4bn.