Under-fire Reform chief Nigel Farage slapped down over ‘institution hit-job’ declare
Nigel Farage issued a statement claiming the ‘establishment will stop at nothing to hurt Reform’ amid allegations he failed to declare financial benefits from a convicted criminal
Nigel Farage has insisted: ‘I have done no wrongdoing’(Image: Getty Images)
Under-fire Reform chief Nigel Farage has been told he’s facing the “opposite of an establishment hit-job” amid allegations he failed to declare financial benefits from a convicted criminal.
Baroness Harriet Harman – a former chair of the Commons standards committee and ex-Deputy Labour leader – made the comment as Mr Farage protested his innocence. He moaned about being the victim of an “establishment hit-job” and claimed reports were an attempt to hurt Reform while his deputy, Richard Tice, attacked an investigative reporter on X.
The Reform boss is already under investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner over an undisclosed £5million gift from Thai-based billionaire Christopher Harborne.
But over the weekend Mr Farage was again referred to the commissioner Daniel Greenberg after allegedly failing to declare financial benefits he received from a convicted criminal. The ex-Ukip leader was accused of breaching parliamentary rules over claims he accepted staffing, security and housing from George Cottrell – a rich aristocrat known as “Posh George”- in the year before he became an MP.
Under rules in place at the time of Mr Farage’s election in 2024, new MPs were required to register any gifts worth more than £300 they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift “could not be reasonably thought by others” to relate to their political activities.
If found to have breached the rules, he could face sanctions including a Commons suspension that could trigger a recall petition and a by-election in his seat.
On Sunday evening, Mr Farage claimed: “I have done no wrongdoing, followed the rules and I am now considering legal action against The Sunday Times. It’s now clear the establishment will stop at nothing to hurt Reform – we want to smash their cosy consensus.”
Referring to the Commons process, Baroness Harman said: “The parliamentary commissioner on standards is not and has never been a political figure. He is completely independent and he is the one doing the investigation.”
She went on: “This is the opposite of an establishment hit-job. This is so the public can know that the establishment in terms of people with lots of money are not buying their Members of Parliament. Over the decades I was an MP, each time there was a review of the code of conduct, the standards were raised.”
Baroness Harman also told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Nigel Farage saying this is an establishment hit-job – what he should be saying is ‘these rules are important, they keep our Parliament clean, I’m going to at all times comply with them, I have complied with them, I’ll cooperate with the investigation and I’m confident I’ll be found not to have broken the rules’”.
She said: “But he’s not doing that. He’s attacking and trying to delegitimise the system.
“If it comes to a finding by the commissioner that he has been in breach of the rules, the way he’s conducted himself whilst he’s been under investigation will be taken into account as an aggravating fact when it comes to the penalty.”
Speaking on Sunday, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said Cottrell is an “old friend” of Mr Farage and has “no formal role within Reform”. Despite the claim of no formal role, The Times reported last night Cottrell had handed out a business cards printed with his name, the Reform UK logo and Mr Farage’s official email.
A Reform spokesman told The Mirror: “George Cottrell is an unpaid volunteer with no formal role at Reform UK, like many thousands of party members. The business card was designed to help donors or other members of the public easily get in touch with Nigel Farage’s office. It was not intended to suggest any formal position or authority. Mr Cottrell has never held an official role within the party.”
Earlier, the Labour minister Olivia Bailey also said she was shocked at the Clacton MP’s reaction after he claimed he is the victim of an establishment hit-job.
She told LBC: “I think he’s got really, really serious questions to answer, and to be honest, I’m really shocked to see the reaction from him, from (Reform UK MP) Robert Jenrick on the on the telly yesterday, trying to obfuscate, trying to say there’s nothing to see here, trying to accuse the Times of being a Labour-supporting newspaper.
“I did chuckle at that one.I think it’s ridiculous, I think it’s offensive to the British public. I think there are serious questions to answer, and I hope that the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner proceeds with their investigations.”
