Until Saturday night, little was known about the relationship between Nigel Farage and George Cottrell. Now the 32-year-old aristocrat and convicted fraudster is at the centre of a fresh controversy over whether the Reform UK leader broke parliamentary rules by failing to declare benefits provided by his longtime aide.
The Sunday Times reports that Cottrell supplied support including security and social media staff who worked on Farage's online content in the year before he became an MP. The newspaper also claims Farage continues to use a property rented by Cottrell near Buckingham Palace.
“Nigel Farage faces allegations he failed to declare benefits from convicted criminal George Cottrell.”
Under parliamentary rules, new MPs must declare financial interests and “registrable benefits” received in the 12 months before their election. Farage did register a £9,253 trip to Belgium and a £15,276 US domestic flight, both donated by Cottrell, but has not listed any other support.
Reform UK has denied any rules were broken. Its Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick told the BBC the support did not need to be registered since it was provided in a “purely personal capacity” prior to Farage's election. “No rules have been broken whatsoever. This is a very old story that has been dredged up… to try and drag Nigel down,” Jenrick said on Sunday.
Cottrell, known as “Posh George”, was jailed for eight months in the US in 2017 after pleading guilty to wire fraud. He was arrested as he and Farage were travelling back to the UK after the Republican National Convention in 2016. The convicted crypto entrepreneur called Farage “Daddy”, according to the Sunday Times.
Gabriel Pogrund, who led the Sunday Times team behind the investigation, told the BBC's Newscast it is “difficult” to pin down precisely who Cottrell is. Born in Gloucester in 1993, he is the son of the Honourable Fiona Cottrell, an aristocrat said to have “briefly dated” then-Prince Charles. His grandfather, the third Baron Manton, inherited a “family soap empire”.
Cottrell reportedly left education without A-levels after being expelled from Malvern College due to a “gambling addiction”. He is alleged to have once walked into a bookies with tens of thousands of pounds in cash. He went on to become a “fixer-cum-financier to the ultra-rich in Mayfair”, and his wealth now “derives from crypto”.
At 22, he was made Ukip's head of fundraising after volunteering for Farage in a 2015 by-election. The two became “very close”, says Pogrund. “George is seen as the Farage whisperer. He knows when Nigel needs a cigarette, he knows when Nigel wants a beer, he knows when Nigel wants a moment's peace.”
Cottrell was at Farage's side on the day of the Brexit referendum in June 2016. A month later, he was arrested in the US. Now, as Farage faces an investigation by the Commons sleaze watchdog over an undeclared £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne, the new allegations threaten to deepen the scrutiny on the Reform leader's finances.