Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is facing claims that he may have broken the rules by failing to declare funding from George Cottrell, who admitted wire fraud in the US
Nigel Farage’s team has rubbished fresh claims the Reform UK leader may have broken parliamentary rules after reports he failed to declare funding from a convicted criminal.
George Cottrell supplied support, external including security and social media staff who worked on Farage’s online content in the year before he was elected. It is also alleged Farage used a property rented by him near Buckingham Palace.
Farage is already facing a parliamentary probe over a £5m gift from a billionaire donor which was not registered. Now the Liberal Democrats have called on Parliament’s sleaze watchdog to launch a second investigation into the latest claims about his finances.
Lib Dem MP Josh Babarinde has written to Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg to say there is a “serious question as to whether Mr Farage met his obligations under the Code of Conduct for MPs”.
After becoming the MP for Clacton in 2024, Farage registered a £9,000 trip to Belgium donated by Cottrell, and belatedly added £15,000 for a US domestic flight, but no other support.
Under rules in place at the time, 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.
Cottrell, 32, who admitted a count of wire fraud in the US in 2017, is a long-time pal of Farage. He was involved with UKIP as a volunteer in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.
In 2017, Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the US after pleading guilty to a charge of wire fraud after admitting attempting to defraud criminals on the dark web posing as a money launderer. Farage was with Cottrell when the US authorities nabbed him as the pair were returning to the UK from a Republican convention.
According to the claims, originally published in the Sunday Times, Cottrell is a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and is involved with offshore gambling website Tether.bet.
A Reform spokesman said: “It comes as no surprise that The Sunday Times has chosen to publish this baseless and contrived story, covering a period of time when Nigel Farage was not even an active politician let alone an elected one, given that the newspaper backed the Labour Party at the last general election. Contrary to the story’s tone, no parliamentary rules have been broken.”
Robert Jenrick said “no rules have been broken” over Farage receiving financial support from a convicted criminal because it was “before he became a member of Parliament”.
Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Mr Jenrick said Cottrell is an “old friend” of Farage and has “no formal role within Reform”. He said that “no rules have been broken whatsoever” and Farage is “not going anywhere”.