Reform UK<\/a> leader spoke in depth for the first time about his support from Cottrell and the \u00a35m gift from the Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne in an interview with the anti-woke Triggernometry podcast.<\/p>\nHe acknowledged the parliamentary standards system could find against him but claimed he had sought advice from a \u201ctop international lawyer\u201d who told him the \u00a35m did not need to be declared because it was unconditional.<\/p>\n
In relation to Cottrell, Farage said his friend had given him nothing since he was elected in July 2024 and that financial support before then was \u201cirrelevant\u201d and unrelated to politics.<\/p>\n
The Reform UK leader also claimed his party was being unfairly targeted over a \u00a3500,000 donation to the party from Cottrell\u2019s mother, Fiona, which is under investigation by the police over whether she is the true source of the funding.<\/p>\n
However, in an apparent slip of the tongue, Farage referred to it as being a donation from Cottrell himself, before correcting himself to say it was from his mother, as he made the case that it was a conspiracy against the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that his donation \u2013 it was his mother\u2019s donation \u2013 this was reported to the NCA [National Crime Agency] in September 2024. The police followed up in the spring of 2025. Why is it now a story? It\u2019s now a story because everything is being coordinated together to try and knock us out of the game. That\u2019s why I\u2019m fighting this byelection. I\u2019m saying: let the people decide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Farage\u2019s support in kind from Cottrell and the \u00a35m from Harborne just before the last election are currently under investigation by the standards commissioner over whether they should have been publicly registered.<\/p>\n
Financial support has to be declared within 12 months of an MP being elected if it has any link to their political activities.<\/p>\n
Although the standards commissioner has not yet reported back, Farage has called a byelection in his constituency of Clacton to let voters decide if they want him as MP, although it is being boycotted by the major parties. He could face a second byelection if the commissioner finds against him and the penalty is enough to trigger a recall petition.<\/p>\n
On the financial support he took from Cottrell before July 2024, Farage told the podcast: \u201cAt that period of my life, from 2021 to 3 June 2024, I was a broadcaster, I was someone that appeared on celebrity TV programmes, I was somebody that promoted some financial market products, I was an influencer, I had a considerable 5 million following, so the fact that George did me a favour with those things is not a matter of public interest or record. It\u2019s irrelevant. I wasn\u2019t in politics, it\u2019s literally no one\u2019s business and it is totally undeclarable in every single way.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also defended his decision to stay loyal to Cottrell, who is a member of his inner circle and who Farage described as an \u201cenormously colourful character\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Cottrell\u2019s conviction and imprisonment for fraud in the US in 2017, Farage said: \u201cGeorge, as a young man, got into trouble in America. If you are involved in tax avoidance schemes, it is very easy in America to get into very, very big trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reform UK is also under scrutiny over \u00a31m sent by Fiona Cottrell before the last election to Britain Means Business, a company controlled by the Reform UK deputy leader, Richard Tice. Of this, \u00a3500,000 was later sent to Reform UK by Britain Means Business.<\/p>\n
The Guardian has previously reported that Fiona Cottrell did not send the money straight to the Britain Means Business account. It was routed via a UK bank account of an Australian money exchange platform called Oneify.<\/p>\n
The Sunday Times reported this weekend<\/a> that George Cottrell opened an account with a money transfer firm called Oneify in May 2024.<\/p>\nAsked this month if Cottrell transferred money to his mother before she made donations to Reform, his lawyers at Carter-Ruck said: \u201cOur client has confirmed his instructions that any donations by his mother have been entirely her own decision.\u201d The lawyers added: \u201cHe therefore declines to engage with your [wider] questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a previous letter to the Guardian, the lawyers stated that \u201chis mother\u2019s donations have been entirely her own decision, and are a matter for her\u201d. They added that suggestions he \u201chas donated impermissibly to Reform UK are unfounded\u201d. Fiona Cottrell has declined to speak to the media about the donations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage has admitted his close friend the fraudster George Cottrell let him use one of his London…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-700008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}