Nigel Farage is facing fresh accusations he broke MPs’ rules by failing to declare financial benefits he received from a convicted criminal in the year before he entered Parliament.
Staffing, security and housing was allegedly supplied to the Reform UK leader by his long-time aide George Cottrell.
The Sunday Times reports that Cottrell recruited and paid three staff to work on Farage’s social media before the 2024 general election.
The newspaper also claims that Farage has continued to use a property rented by Cottrell near Buckingham Palace.
Under parliamentary rules, new MPs must declare financial interests and ‘registrable benefits’ received in the 12 months before their election.
While Farage did register a £9,253 trip to Belgium and a £15,276 US domestic flight, both donated by Cottrell, he has not listed any other support from the backer in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
The Brexit campaigner is already facing an investigation by the Commons sleaze watchdog over an undeclared £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne
Reform UK has denied that any parliamentary rules had been broken over his relationship to Cottrell and called the Sunday Times’ story ‘baseless’.
Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Economic spokesman, said during interviews this morning that ‘no rules had been broken whatsoever. This is a very old story that has been dredged up… to try and drag Nigel down’.
Cottrell, who is a long-standing ally of Farage from his time as a UKIP volunteer, was jailed for eight months in the US in 2017 after pleading guilty to a charge of wire fraud.
He was arrested as he and Farage were travelling back to the UK following a trip to the US.
Cottrell, who calls Farage ‘Daddy’, admitted attempting to defraud criminals on the dark web by posing as a money launderer.