{"id":724748,"date":"2026-08-02T17:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T17:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724748\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T17:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T17:48:14","slug":"stench-of-sleaze-farage-struck-deal-over-political-return-months-before-2024-election-reports-say-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724748\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Stench of sleaze\u2019: Farage struck deal over political return months before 2024 election, reports say | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform UK is operating under a \u201cstench of sleaze\u201d, Labour has said, after reports that Nigel Farage<\/a> struck a secret deal to return as leader of Reform months before the general election.<\/p>\n

Farage was in discussions about a return to the political frontline from as early as March 2024, despite later claiming he had no intention of returning to politics until June 2024, the Sunday Times reported.<\/p>\n

In April this year, the Guardian revealed Farage did not disclose a \u00a35m personal gift<\/a> from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne that he received in April 2024. He told senior figures in Reform UK he would need \u201ca million a year\u201d to cover lost earnings if he stood for parliament in the 2024 general election, sources told the Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under parliamentary rules, newly elected MPs must register any relevant financial interests and gifts received in the 12 months before their election.<\/p>\n

Farage has repeatedly said he was an \u201cinfluencer\u201d and media personality at the time of the gift, and was therefore under no obligation to declare the sum. The parliamentary standards watchdog opened a formal investigation<\/a> over the \u00a35m gift in May. Farage is also now subject to another inquiry<\/a> over allegations that he was financially supported by the crypto gambler and convicted fraudster George Cottrell, who is a close friend.<\/p>\n

\"WhoWho is George Cottrell, the mystery donor who has potentially landed Nigel Farage in hot water?<\/p>\n

Farage \u2013 who is contesting a byelection in Clacton in a little over two weeks, after resigning over the issue \u2013 has accused those raising questions about his financial backing<\/a> of \u201cdemonising\u201d him as part of a \u201ccoordinated pile-on\u201d to stop Reform UK. The main parties have declined to field candidates against Farage; his main opponent is now Count Binface<\/a>, a parody candidate<\/a>. If Farage wins in Clacton but parliament imposes sanctions for failing to declare the gifts, he may be removed from the House of Commons and face a second byelection.<\/p>\n

According to the Sunday Times<\/a>, Farage renegotiated a deal \u2013 supervised by Cottrell \u2013 to return as the leader of Reform with the party\u2019s then leader, Richard Tice, in March and April 2024. Under the terms of the deal, once Farage became leader, Reform would repay or write off more than \u00a31m in outstanding loans it had received from Tice\u2019s company, the Times reported.<\/p>\n

The deal was reportedly to have been presented by Farage and Cottrell to the party\u2019s treasurer in mid-May, undermining the Reform leader\u2019s claim that he had no intention until June 2024 of returning to politics.<\/p>\n

Reform sources told the Guardian that Farage had learned of the party\u2019s liabilities and what loans would have to be repaid if he returned as leader, and any plan had been drafted for if, not when, he became leader. They said he decided not to return, before reversing that decision.<\/p>\n

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, is facing questions over the \u00a35m personal gift he received in 2024. Photograph: Joe Giddens\/PA<\/p>\n

Bridget Phillipson, the chair of the Labour<\/a> party, said that if the revelations were accurate it \u201cblows Nigel Farage\u2019s story apart\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean Farage was privately negotiating his return to frontline politics while publicly presenting as someone who hadn\u2019t decided whether to return,\u201d said Phillipson. \u201cThat raises even more questions about the secret \u00a35m gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, further undermining his account of why he kept it secret.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGrubby pacts, secret gifts, support from a convicted fraudster, attempted cover-ups and police investigations \u2013 it all adds up to a stench of sleaze the public can smell from miles away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farage is facing a number of questions about his financial backing aside from the \u00a35m gift from Harborne, which his lawyers said was unconditional and made without the expectation of Farage returning to politics. Financial industry sources have revealed to the Guardian that transactions involving Reform\u2019s leadership have been referred to the National Crime Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Farage\u2019s friend and aide Cottrell \u2013 known as \u201cposh George\u201d \u2013 and his mother, Fiona Cottrell, have been interviewed under criminal caution by Scotland Yard detectives<\/a>. Sources said that Cottrell, who was jailed for eight months in the US for wire fraud in 2017<\/a> and is now based in Montenegro, transferred a total of more than $2m (\u00a31.5m)<\/a> to his mother in 2024, with each sum arriving shortly before she made substantial donations to the party.<\/p>\n

Election law stipulates that donations to political parties can only be made by permissible donors<\/a> including registered UK voters, UK-registered companies and UK trade unions. It bans concealing or disguising donations derived from an \u201cimpermissible\u201d donor or the use of \u201cfalse\u201d information about a donation including the amount or the identity of the donor. Tice has said Fiona Cottrell was a permissible donor and he understood her son was too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK is operating under a \u201cstench of sleaze\u201d, Labour has said, after reports that Nigel Farage struck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-724748","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\/724748","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=724748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}