Simon says

Oliver Shah in The Sunday Times provides some rich detail about the dinner where the Nigel Farage bank account story took off. 

It was a charity event for BBC Media Action, at the Langham Hotel, called the Correspondents Dinner. Each table gets two BBC correspondents or presenters, and bigwigs part with money in quizzes and auctions, with Wimbledon tickets and trips to Dancing With The Stars on offer this year.  The host was Jeremy Vine. 

Last year, Simon Jack played host; this year he was next to Alison Rose, CEO of Natwest, with, deliciously, Tim Davie, Editor in Chief, on her other side. 

It's hard to see what the BBC felt it had to apologise for. The Times had previously reported that Mr Farage's bank account had been closed (source: Farage); it was public knowledge he had an account with Coutts. Alison Rose thought the story was 'out there', and confirmed, and then reconfirmed it to Jack. There couldn't have been a better source than the banking group's CEO; if she had been less than clear that there was some underlying reputational reason for dropping Farage, then that's hardly the BBC's fault.