Labour has demanded that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage 'level with the public' regarding financial backing that he received from a convicted fraudster. The call comes amid intense scrutiny over support from his long-term associate, George Cottrell, which reportedly included funding for staff, security, and access to a London townhouse, according to The Sunday Times.
Mr Farage has dismissed the allegations as an 'establishment hit job', insisting that he has committed 'no wrongdoing'. However, Labour Party chair Anna Turley urged Mr Farage to cease 'blaming the media' and instead address the questions surrounding Mr Cottrell's financial assistance.
Labour's demands for transparency
The Cabinet minister and Redcar MP said: 'Reform's excuses for the scandals engulfing Nigel Farage are getting pathetically weak. His top team must be wondering how many more times they will be wheeled out to defend the indefensible only for the rap sheet against him to grow just hours later.'
'This latest revelation appears to pour cold water on Farage's claims that the gifts and support he received from a convicted criminal were not in support of his political activities. Nigel Farage must come out of hiding and level with the public. It's time he stopped blaming the media and took responsibility for his actions.'
Details of Cottrell's support
George Cottrell recruited and paid three staff to work on Mr Farage's social media before the general election, and has continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian property he rented near Buckingham Palace, The Sunday Times said. 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 that they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift 'could not be reasonably thought by others' to relate to their political activities.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for Parliament's standards commissioner, who is already investigating a £5 million gift Mr Farage received from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne, to examine the support from Mr Cottrell.
Farage's response and defence
The Reform leader issued a statement on Sunday, insisting that he had not broken any rules. 'I have done no wrongdoing, followed the rules and I am now considering legal action against The Sunday Times,' he said. 'It's now clear the establishment will stop at nothing to hurt Reform – we want to smash their cosy consensus.'
Reform UK's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said that Mr Cottrell is an 'old friend' of Mr Farage and has 'no formal role within Reform'. The Times reported that Mr Cottrell handed out a business card printed with his name, the Reform UK logo and Mr Farage's official email address, despite having no formal role in the party.
Registration of gifts and potential sanctions
After becoming the MP for Clacton in 2024, Mr Farage registered a £9,000 trip to Belgium donated by Mr Cottrell, and belatedly added £15,000 for a US domestic flight, but no other support. Asked if Mr Cottrell paid for Mr Farage's security and staff in 2024, Mr Jenrick told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme he did but this was 'before he became a Member of Parliament'.
Mr Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the United States in 2017 after pleading guilty to a charge of wire fraud, after admitting attempting to defraud criminals on the dark web by masquerading as a money launderer. He was arrested as he and Mr Farage travelled back to the UK following a trip to the US. Mr Cottrell reportedly remains a close adviser to Mr Farage after first becoming involved in Ukip as a volunteer in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.
Parliament's standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg is already investigating whether Mr Farage should have registered an undisclosed £5 million gift from Thai-based billionaire Mr Harborne. If found to have breached the rules, Mr Farage could face sanctions including a Commons suspension that could trigger a recall petition and a by-election in his seat.
Labour has called for a financial watchdog probe into whether Mr Farage's advocacy for cryptocurrency has benefitted Reform mega-donor Mr Harborne, after reports he lobbied the Bank of England governor to scrap plans for a state-run, digital currency.
Criticism of Farage's tactics
Labour peer Baroness Harriet Harman has accused Mr Farage of trying to 'delegitimise' the parliamentary standards process with his claim of an 'establishment hit job'. 'He's attacking and trying to delegitimise the system, and 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 being under investigation will be taken into account as an aggravating fact when it comes to the penalty,' the former chair of the parliamentary standards committee told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
She added: 'This is the opposite of an establishment hit job. This is so that the public can know that the establishment, in terms of people with lots of money, are not buying their members of parliament.'
