Lloyds Bank DENIES Mortgage to Activist's Mum Over Palestine

We all rely on banks, whether we like it or not. You can't get paid, you can't pay bills, and most people can't borrow the funds to buy a house, start a business, or manage their debts without one. But banks are far from our friends. They're ruthless businesses that can turn on you at any time. That's what appears to have happened to Emma Cameo, the mother of jailed Palestine action activist Ellie Cameo, who has been denied a financial service from her long-time bank, Lloyds, over what they call adverse media. That report is by Novara Media's Harriet Williamson. You can find the link in the description, who writes this. Ellie's mom, Emma Cameo, a small business owner in South Wales and mother of three, applied for a new mortgage with Lloyds on her commercial properties in April. Her mortgage broker had made the high street bank aware of the legal process affecting the family prior to the application. However, Emma's broker was told by a Lloyds business development manager in early June, "We've now assessed the deal and consulted with our credit sanction team. Unfortunately, due to the adverse media, it's not something they are comfortable supporting at this time." Adverse media about someone's daughter, rather than the applicant herself, seems a strange reason to turn down a mortgage product for a business. And at the beginning of June, when Emma's application was rejected, Ellie Cameo had, along with the rest of the Filton Four, only been found guilty of criminal damage in a 2024 raid on an Albert site near Bristol. But she hadn't yet been sentenced as a terrorist. That would only happen later that month. In fact, a lot of the adverse media at the time was about the fact that the possibility of a terror connection being found in the case had been concealed from both the jury and the wider public by a court order. And also about the fact that the counter-terror law was about to be used for the very first time against people protesting in the tradition of the suffragettes. Emma Cameo even tried going back to the bank with another option, with Harriet reporting this. Emma's broker then offered an alternative plan, transferring the properties into her sister's ownership, but Lloyds still refused to proceed with the mortgage application. While Emma was refused perfectly ordinary banking services, Lloyd's went ever further with her daughter, Ellie. Harry also reports this. Ellie was sent a letter notifying her of Lloyd's decision to close her bank account in February 2025, while she was on held on remand and had not been convicted of any crime. The letter sent to an address Ellie no longer lived at and seen by Novara Media, states, "Following a recent review of your account, we are writing to let you know that unfortunately, we're unable to maintain a banking relationship with you." No explanation of why Lloyd's was unable to maintain a banking relationship with Ellie was provided. So, that's Ellie losing her bank account almost a year and a half before she's been convicted of any crime. And when the question of a terror connection was nowhere near the public consciousness, either. Asked for comment on both of these stories, Lloyd's provided Novara with the statement. "We do not close customer accounts or make lending decisions based on political or personal beliefs. Our decisions are based on relevant laws, regulation, account conditions, or lending requirements. We're unable to comment on individual cases." Earlier today, I was joined by Emma Cameo, the mom of Ellie Cameo, and I began by asking how Ellie is doing. >> Well, she's just been moved to back to Gloucester. She, after sentencing, she was in Bronzefield in London, and they've now sent her to Gloucester, which isn't where she wanted to go. So, it's been a bit of a struggle, a bit of a any move takes about 2 weeks to settle into the new prison new regime. It's not as straightforward as everything goes with them. It's nothing would be be far too simple. Um but, she's just coming through the other side of that, and I spoke to her, I think it was not last night, the night before, and she did a really good day. She's just been um given a blue pass, which is what she they would never allow her before. It's all None of it makes sense. Um a blue pass allows her to be um moving around the prison without being escorted and she needed one of those to get a gardening job, which is what she really wanted. Um, they wouldn't give her it to her in Gloucester prison last time, but they have now just given it and she's she's got a gardening job, so she's just trying to settle into it and she said she's beginning to process the sentence. Um, I think uh she said, "I allow myself to go there for a little while um, then pulls herself back and says, "Okay, that's enough for today." Um, yes, we've got the appeal coming up, but you know, it she's she's she's she's a survivor, so she um, you know, we're looking all around us and how you're going to survive and it's about settling into this new environment and getting ready for the long haul. >> So, now Lloyds refused to remortgage some properties associated with your business over what it calls adverse publicity. What did you take them to mean by that and why do you think it impacted their decision? >> I have no idea. I never gave it any thought whatsoever. Um, I was the remortgage application. Um, I went I went through all the details with the broker and um, he asked me a a list of, you know, normal questions. Have I got any criminal convictions and I told him that I hadn't, but I did give him the history that I'd been wrongfully arrested and why, you know, with my daughter's case. Um, and then I said I did a protest um, to protest the proscription of Palestine Action, but that I since had my court case and that I was found not guilty. He then relayed that to the lender, who I didn't actually know was Lloyds Bank at that time. Um, it was just whatever lender he'd come up with. Um, and he came back and he said, "Yeah, it's okay. They've okayed everything. Let's let's set to go." So, um, then you start all the documentation that they need and etc. And and that went in. Now, don't forget I was juggling a second court case with Ellie. You know, this was just something that was going on in the side and and I left them to it. And it was approximately 6 weeks into it when he came back and said on the phone to me, um he said I've got some bad news. He said they He said I only found out 2 days ago, but I've been I haven't told you straight away because I've been trying to challenge it. He said because I gave them all the information before we went into it. Um and he said all I can tell you is that it's something to do with something that happened on the 12th of June. And I went, well, that was my daughter's sentencing. I said she was sentenced as a terrorist. And I said, well, what has that got to do with me? Um and he said so So, that was his his feedback to me. And then I asked him, could I Could he tell me what grounds they gave for for not for taking me this far down the road before before denying me? And he said His words over the phone were they said reputational risk, but I haven't seen that in writing. Um all all I've seen in writing cuz I then asked him for the email thread, um which he did later send to me, and that was All it said was for adverse media. So, make of that what you will. >> So, what will this mean for your businesses and your livelihood? >> I've got three businesses, um and um it's It sounds big, but it's not. I'm a very small business owner where I run a small Pilates studio, and I'm a homeopath. The commercial property is just something my sister and I had on the side. Um and because the last 2 years, I mean, I haven't looked up. I've just looked forward and um and I've been fighting Ellie's campaign. Um and my business I've got a small team of instructors that that work for me, and they've carried my load hugely all the way through the court, you know, the first trial was 3 months long in London, and I'm in Wales. So, um you know, the team have carried me for long enough. My patients have been patient with me. Um I've I've to see a lot of them online, but it it's hasn't been anything drastic, but a slow I've certainly I'm certainly not growing in the trajectory that I was before this whole thing. I then sort of plateaued for a little while and then you can just see little and and I was worried. So we remortgaged so that I could help buffer buffer that, but as a result, I mean it's a culmination of a lot of things. My health has taken its toll. And my sister that I was in business with, we've both lost another sister about 20 years ago and she just said to me I'm taking it off your hands. She said you've got enough stress going on. So I'm going to take it off you. So she is now currently taking the mortgage on and um and the remortgage rather, not the mortgage, the remortgage with another company which haven't got such attractive rates. But but yeah, my sister's going to carry the can for me. >> You've been very actively campaigning for Ellie. Has this had any impact on your businesses as well? >> I don't teach that many Pilates classes these days and the ones that I do have been with me for so long that I took a long time to tell them. I could tell that some of them knew. Some of them had seen the media, but you know, Swansea's a small town. A isn't aware of what's going on in the rest of the world and B it's a small town so if somebody knows, everybody knows. I've played I think a great professional game throughout this two years and you know, I'm on this side of the camera one minute in London and and campaigning with horror and then you know, Thursday night 7:00 dinner. You know, Pilates time and they have admitted to me that they could see, you know, this was early on before it was openly spoken about that they could tell that I was under stress and they didn't know why, but you know, they're all incredibly loyal and um, my team are um, are incredible as well. They carry the can a lot. Um, and and I just don't look I don't look too far forward. I just deal with the here and the now and what I've got to, you know, what I've got to do. So, yeah, it is what it is and we shall see how how long I survive. >> Now, Ellie still had banking long before she'd been convicted of anything. It's also pretty shocking. According to charity Unlock, which works to make financial services fairer for people with criminal records, people on remand, as Ellie was, should still have access to their bank accounts. So, what happened there? >> Well, that was a long time ago now and honestly, I was I was in an interview yesterday with Fatima Zaynab's mother and there is just so much to cover in the last 2 years that we haven't been either able to talk about, um, openly, you know, whilst the trial was going on and and then once it is all over and you can't talk about it, you're exhausted. Um, and you can't remember all the details along as the way as you go, but Ellie was living in London before her arrest. And, um, when she was first arrested, we, uh, I just said to her, "Have you got enough money in your because she wasn't expecting any any of thing of what happened, you know, she thought she may do, you know, maybe a month at worst." Um, so it was all a big surprise and she said, "Yeah, yeah, my bank account is okay. I've left enough money to pay my, um, you know, she cancelled certain things." She's incredibly organized and she cancelled certain things and then made sure there was enough money to cover direct debits. And, so we were a long I think, if I remember correctly, from sending Harriet the paperwork, I think it was last March, I I believe, when maybe they sent it. I think that was it, but we didn't get it then because they sent a letter to her old address. And they never gave any reason, so I can only surmise that she will have been flagged up on some system somewhere as having a terror connection, even though the public didn't know, the jury didn't know. We might have known and clearly the banks have access to that knowledge. And because there is no other reason, you know, myself and three children have all banked with Lloyds our entire lives collectively it makes up like 87 years that we've been banking with Lloyds and there is absolutely no reason for them to you know to debank her. But we didn't know about it. Luckily one of her direct debits was a I think it was a mobile phone or a TV license I can't remember what it was it was something Sky so I think it might be the mobile. And she she had when she had set that up it was using my address before she had gone to London. And that is the only reason that I found out because Sky suddenly not getting their direct debit payments and sent a letter addressed to her at my address so I opened it and it said that you know she was in debt. So I then tried to get back into her bank account and I couldn't and then I contacted the house that she was in and I said is there any mail there? And they said yes there's a a pile sitting here waiting for us so they sent it to me and that's when I discovered that um they'd debanked her closed her account and all the fund with no word says no you know no reason it did they didn't give a reason and a check for the contents contents of it so then there was this whole escapade in trying to there was a a credit card for another bank that she was paying monthly a couple of other direct debits and in order for me to continue those payments or to to see they they we won't deal with me because I'm not her obviously. So you know it causes incredible stress and I'm no end of you know that on top of the prison system you know we you need a whole show on it but you know it wasn't simple. >> So we don't have any information showing whether or not the banks did any have any information regarding the potential terror connection on that issue. Now when it comes to the recent coverage that we've done there was the announcement that the Filth and Fury would be appealing the extraordinary sentencing as terrorist which you mentioned earlier. How are you feeling about that? >> Well, you know, I am somebody that sees the glass half full my entire life. I am an incredibly positive person and very hopeful. Now, I'm not religious, but I am spiritual and I do believe this whole thing is, you know, has got to come for count for something and be a part of something. Um that that is for the greater good of mankind, but but in all honesty, uh the amount of corruption that I have seen unfold in front of my very eyes in the last 2 years, um you know, it's I'm not I'm not expecting justice to be done, but it would be nice. Um she's the we're appealing the terror connection and from what I've understood, God, I've gone from a lay person, I'm still a lay person, but I've learned an an enormous amount in the past 2 years. And um the for there to be a terror connection, I think you have to tick two of three boxes. And one is a financial bracket, which doesn't quote a particular amount, so that's odd in itself. Um but staying on that on that thing that that's it said that they did 1.2 million pounds worth of damage, but all they've got for that, which was never scrutinized in in court, was an insurance claim. Um now, Elbit were never enforced to turn up in court to answer any questions during the trial. And so, the the insurance claim was never scrutinized. It was just accepted by the judge. Um so, that's the one thing that they'll be I don't know what exactly they're they're appealing with that, but I know it's something to do with the finances. And the other one was influencing the government, which they quite clearly they they spoke for themselves during their case and said that, you know, they had no hope in influencing a government. They'd tried that before they took direct action. You know, they did the marches, they wrote to MPs, they they did encampments. See, they did all sorts of things um to try and influence the government to stop arming Israel. Um and it simply didn't work, which is why they took direct action. >> That was Emma Camio speaking with me earlier today. And remember, you can find Harriet Williamson's full article in the link below.