Late on Tuesday afternoon, as the media digested Nigel Farage’s shock decision to trigger a byelection amid financial scrutiny, his Reform UK party handed the Telegraph a different story: deputy leader Richard Tice had accused the National Crime Agency of leaking his private financial information to the press.
Tice wrote to the NCA’s boss asking whether the agency would investigate itself. He told the Telegraph that payments to his organisations had been flagged to the NCA through its Suspicious Activity Reports programme – and that he only discovered this when the Guardian contacted him. Reform believes the paper’s information “is likely to have come from the NCA”.
“Richard Tice asks NCA to investigate leaks as transactions involving Reform leadership face scrutiny”
The NCA responded with a statement: “The NCA does not confirm or deny the receipt of suspicious activity reports (SARs), nor comment on how any SAR is used. SARs are confidential and breaching that confidentiality risks committing a tipping off offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”
The Telegraph’s article also contained details of donations and loans Tice and his company had received from George Cottrell, a close ally of Farage and a convicted fraudster. Tice’s company Tisun Investment received a £80,000 loan from Cottrell in late 2024. Tice’s thinktank, Britain Means Business, received a £1m donation from Cottrell’s mother, Fiona, in June 2024. The same month, Britain Means Business donated £500,000 to Reform UK, according to Electoral Commission data. The NCA was notified about these payments as part of the SARs programme, which alerts law enforcement to potential money laundering. In 2024/25, 866,616 cases were flagged.
The incident is an extreme example of a Fleet Street “spoiler” – a party handing a problematic story to a more sympathetic outlet. It was not the first time Reform had used the tactic. In April, after the Guardian approached Farage over a story that the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne had given him an undisclosed £5m in 2024, the Telegraph ran an interview with Farage in which he claimed his home had been firebombed and slipped in that Harborne had given him “around £5m to pay for his security”.
A broader Guardian investigation found that at least four SARs have been made by bankers with concerns about transactions involving senior Reform leaders. These range from the £5m gift from Harborne to a £1m donation routed to Britain Means Business via a convicted fraudster’s mother. Financial industry sources said bankers and the NCA have been unable to identify the ultimate source of funds for that £1m donation, and the NCA is seeking help from a foreign partner.
Farage has also taken a more aggressive approach to the media, confronting the Times for publishing a picture of one of his houses, and Sky News for knocking on a property where his daughter lives. Sky News later issued a statement saying its reporter approached without a camera operator and “the adult occupant chose not to engage”. At his press conference on Tuesday, Farage turned on a Sunday Times journalist who revealed he had been funded by Cottrell.
As questions over Reform’s funding mount, the party’s leaders face growing pressure over financial transparency – and the methods they use to shape the narrative around it.