UK MP Nigel Farage faces questions over undisclosed benefits from convicted fraudster
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A Sunday Times report says Nigel Farage received security, staff and accommodation paid for by convicted money-launderer George Cottrell and may have breached parliamentary rules by not declaring them.
Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, is alleged to have received a range of benefits—including security services, drivers, staff and accommodation—from George Cottrell, a convicted money-laundering conspirator, in the year before his election to parliament. The Sunday Times investigation says Cottrell hired three staff members for Farage’s social-media operations and allowed the use of a five-storey Georgian townhouse near Buckingham Palace. Farage’s spokesperson called the story "baseless and contrived" and asserted that no parliamentary rules were broken.
Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde wrote to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, urging an inquiry and stating that the value and nature of the support raise serious questions about Farage’s compliance with the MPs’ Code of Conduct, which requires declaration of any benefit over £300 received within 12 months of election. In his 2024 registration, Farage listed only a single benefit from Cottrell—a £9,200 travel expense to a conference in Belgium.
Cottrell, who was sentenced in the United States in 2017 for wire fraud linked to a money-laundering scheme, confirmed through his lawyers that he paid staff in Farage’s private office by bank transfer, with the last security payment made between January and March 2024. Farage is also under a separate parliamentary standards investigation concerning a £5 million donation from cryptocurrency entrepreneur Christopher Harborne, which he said was used to fund his security.
