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Nigel Farage was reportedly 'secretly funded' by a convicted criminal in the year before he entered Parliament - potentially breaking MPs' rules by failing to declare the payments. George Cottrell, a long-time aide, is reported to have provided funding for the Reform UK leader's operation - including for staffing, security and housing . According to the Sunday Times, Cottrell recruited and paid three staff to work on Mr Farage's social media before the general election in 2024. It says he also continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian townhouse he rented near Buckingham Palace. After becoming the MP for Clacton, Mr Farage registered a £9,000 trip to Belgium donated by Cottrell before belatedly adding £15,000 for a US domestic flight, but no other support. Reform UK denies that its leader breached the code of conduct. Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter But under rules in place at the time, new MPs were required to register any gifts worth more than £300 they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift 'could not be reasonably thought by others' to relate to their political activities. The rules also required MPs to bear in mind the purpose of the register of interests to provide information about financial interests 'which might reasonably be thought by others to influence his or her actions'. Cottrell is a crypto-gambling entrepreneur involved in offshore bookmaker Tether.bet. He 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. In 2017, Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the US 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 Britain following a trip to the US. Reform UK said: "It comes as no surprise that The Sunday Times has chosen to publish this baseless and contrived story, covering a period of time when Nigel Farage was not even an active politician, let alone an elected one, given that the newspaper backed the Labour Party at the last general election. Contrary to the story's tone, no parliamentary rules have been broken." Mr Farage is already facing questions about an undisclosed £5 million gift from Thai-based billionaire Christopher Harborne. Parliament's standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg is investigating whether Mr Farage should have registered the gift. 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. The Clacton MP has given various explanations for the gift, including that it was to pay for his personal security. 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. A party spokesperson said: "Nigel Farage and Reform are engulfed in a huge and growing scandal. It's not going to go away, and trying to take the public for fools by saying it's 'none of your business' won't help. "These new allegations of secret payments from a wealthy convicted criminal are on top of the ongoing scandal of his secret £5 million gift from a crypto billionaire. How much money has he been given, what did his donors get in return, and why has he tried to cover them up and avoid legitimate questions?"
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