Nigel Farage and the £5m question that won’t go away

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:08Today, Nigel Farage's money problems.

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1:13For a while earlier this year, it looked like nothing could stop Nigel Farage heading for Downing Street. Not the allegations of schoolboy racism... UK leader Nigel Farage has publicly denied that he ever, and these are his words, directly racially abused anybody. Not the dodgy cameo videos. Wagwan Ted, you sussy jungles. I hope you have a pog birthday. Remember, Brexit means... Not the£400 ,000 he trousered for advertising gold bullion. Generations of my family worked here in the city of London, including me in the metals business. Now behind me is the Bank of England. That's where our national gold reserves are held.

1:51But hey, you can all go too. Then at the end of April, Guardian City editor Anna Isaac delivered a game-changing scoop. So that was a£5 million gift, as Nigel Farage has termed it, from Christopher Harbourn, who is a cryptocurrency billionaire. And it emerged that he had given this huge lump sum to Nigel Farage just weeks before the 2024 general election. Farage has come up with all manner of explanations for the gift. From, I can use it to buy Ferraris if I want, it's unconditional. It was unconditional, but it was absolutely predicated on security costs and also that it was a reward for Brexit campaigning.

2:37It set off a domino run of allegations against the reform leader and other reform figures, including his deputy leader. Some breaking news. Reform UK MP for Boston, Skeg Ness, Richard Tite, is being investigated by parliamentary authorities over an alleged failure to declare an interest. The parliamentary request for standards confirmed earlier this morning. And George Cottrell, better known as Posh George, who served time in a US jail for wire fraud. His name's George Cottrell and he's in the news because he financially supported Farage in the year before he became an MP and the Reform UK leader didn't register the benefit, which is why several parties have referred him to Parliament's standards watchdog.

3:15And on the weekend, new revelations emerged about an alleged deal struck between Tyson Farage, suggesting Farage had decided to return to politics before that£5 million landed in his bank account. And the awkward questions keep coming. In 2024, did you negotiate a deal on what would happen to reforms finances if you came back as leader at a time when you were suggesting you had no plans to return to electoral politics? Can you be absolutely clear and honest? When did you start thinking about returning to Parliament and becoming the leader of the Reform Party? I was being bullied. From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pidd.

3:55Today in Focus. Farage and the£5 million question that won't go away.

4:04Anna Isaac, welcome back to Today in Focus. Nice to see you. Nice to be here. So you're the Guardian City editor, but I think you deserve another title, which is the Guardian Scoop Queen, because your reporting on reform has, I really do think, changed the political weather so much in the past few months. So I salute you and I'm very, very glad that you're here today. And there've been so many twists and turns to all of these stories and we're going to get into all of those. But can you start by telling us what made you want to look into reform's finances? I've always been interested in money meets politics, but I think for a long time you were looking at this extraordinary ascendancy of this political party, right?

4:40So although it had existed for a few years, it was still regarded as very new and sort of national major politics beyond the Brexit issue when it came to the 2024 election. And I was starting to take a closer look at the money behind it and who was driving it and were they the same people that had supported the Brexit party, its precursor? or were we seeing some new faces or different ways of political party fundraising? And that's what sort of led me towards these recent stories. And how difficult was it to delve into their finances and to follow the trail of the money? It can be tough. It can take a really long time.

5:13It's a group of people around the party who feel very protective of it, who feel that a lot of the media isn't giving it a fair hearing and things like that. And so I had to work pretty hard, both working sort of financial industry sources, which obviously have a background in, but also working on new sources and trying to explain it was just about telling the facts. And you had this, I'm going to say, bombshell splash back in April this year about the£5 million donation that Farage received from this mysterious crypto billionaire, Christopher Harbour. And that was a time when reform were leading in the polls, how things can change.

5:50And as a result of that£5 million gift and your story that revealed it, Farage was referred to the Standards Watch, wasn't he, at Parliament. Then you've also reported remarks that he made, I think back in March 2024, Farage this is, when he said that he would need£1 million a year to stand as an MP. And that was just a month before he accepted this gift. Talk to me about that story. There was a lot of will he, won't he within reform, basically from January onwards in 2024. Would Farage stand? Would he not? A big concern, according to sources that he had, was he believed at that time he would have to give up his gig presenting on GB News.

6:31Why am I here? Why have I decided to join GB News full on, not just to come in on a Sunday morning, but to launch this show tonight, Farage? And I'll be here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 7pm to 8pm. Very lucrative gig. Very, very lucrative gig. We know because of disclosures he's since made about what he's paid by GB News that he argues this money includes VAT and various things. But in terms of actual direct payment to his company, Thorn in the Side, he gets about a million a year, roughly speaking. At that time, that was the kind of money he was earning. And his concern was that, remember, he went on the record in 2017 and said he was skint and there's no money in politics.

7:08And he's repeated that phrase, there's no money in politics, many times. There's no money in politics. If you're straight, if you're correct. And he was of a view, according to sources, that he was really going to miss out. He was going to put himself in financial hardship again, potentially, by going back into what he termed frontline politics, although he was campaigning for reform at this time. Yeah. And he just felt like that trade-off was too tough. And he said that to senior figures in reform and to some party funders. And I just think that's really important context for us to have in mind when we look at the fact that he was given this£5 million.

7:41pounds. Yeah, and it's probably worth us pointing out here that Farage, or at least his office, have never denied that he did say that he would need a million pound a year to go back into politics. But when you went to them for a response, they, the office, said, quote, Mr. Farage says he does not feel any answer he gives to you will be reflected accurately. So there you go.

8:06yeah and then this weekend came yet more revelations about the timing of Farage's return to politics tell me about them yeah absolutely so in the Sunday Times we had a story about negotiations that were happening in March and April in 2024 and these talks were ultimately about a deal for the return to leadership of the party for Nigel Farage. But in some senses, it's more of a deal for Richard Tice. These discussions were about the amount of money he'd loaned to the party and whether or not he'd be repaid for that as part of this process of Farage returning to the leadership position, because let's remember that Richard Tice was leader for a long time, and his money really propped up the party and kept it in survival mode for several years.

8:54So that's the context. But it's really critical that he was having these discussions in March and April at a time when he said he was not actively involved in frontline politics. So this is a really important development and it does fit with our previous reporting about some of the discussions he was having, talking about coming back to this frontline role and standing in the next election. Yeah. And he addressed this story at a press conference on Monday. And Farage press conferences last year were 10 a penny. He was doing one every single week, but he's been somewhat missing in action since your story about the revelation of the £5 million earlier in spring.

9:31What did you make about the fact that he decided to give this press conference, which was ostensibly about immigration and using Navy boats to repel small boat migrants, and what he had to say about the latest revelations? I think what was really significant is that there was sort of a few things that built up to form pressure on him, I think, to take this big public stand today. And for the first time, he acknowledged that there were live discussions about his return during the spring. I had no intention of returning to politics or was leader of reform. But in the spring of that year, I did talk to Richard Tice about what the liabilities would be if, if I was to come back to that position.

10:13He hit back at it being called a deal, but he said it was perfectly reasonable for him to work out what the liabilities might be if he were to take on the leadership when he was considering whether or not to do that in March and April of 2024, that critical window. You'd be a bit of a mug, wouldn't you, to walk into a job and not find out what the potential liabilities were. And they were substantial. He did try to say that these talks came after the gift. But given that they've been defined as being in March and April, and lawyers for Christopher Harbon told us the gift was in on 5th April. That would be tricky timing wise.

10:53Also, other reporting we have suggested that some of the money arrived much later in late May. So there are still very big questions about the timing, but it's really interesting that he's acknowledging for the first time that there were these discussions and that he was to-ing and fro-ing on his decision. And when Farage turned up for his press conference in Westminster on Monday, he will have known full well that he would also face questions about his financial affairs. What do you think we can read into the fact that he did subject himself to this questioning? I think he appeared to be making a very concerted effort to be more relaxed in front of media.

11:29His tone was very different. He was working very hard to maintain a very calm manner, even when he was asked about things that had made him extremely angry in recent months and weeks when it came to what he said was outrageous treatment of his family by the press. He seemed very much keen to maintain this very, very calm tone. And he made a point of saying, we don't want to be seen to be whinging. And that's a real shift in tone there from his previous position where he was very much a sort of us versus them with the media. And right now, Farage is, of course, campaigning in a by-election where his main opponent is Count Binface.

12:06And we're going to bring listeners an episode from Clacton in the next week. But the timing of him calling that by election raised eyebrows, didn't it, in the Guardian offices? Because it came after you had found out that the National Crime Agency was looking into the origin of that£5 million gift. Because bankers had apparently raised concerns that there was a potential risk of money laundering. The key thing to understand, and they're called suspicious activity reports, to give you the jargon, these are bankers going, hmm, we have reasons to think that this might be a problem, reasons to think that there could be money laundering involved.

12:41So we are sending a report off to the National Crime Agency to say to them, look, this is one for you guys to take a look at and decide whether or not you want to investigate. It is not the same as a crime report. If they found out that there was definitely a crime and they knew for sure, then they would make a report to the police. These are a level, they're in a separate category from that. They're saying, look, we think something may have happened here, but we need you guys to check. Okay. And what have Farage and Christopher Harbourn had to say about the origins of that 5 million? Nigel Farage has said that he had no reason to doubt the origin of the funds.

13:16And lawyers for Christopher Harbourn haven't addressed directly the question of where the 5 million pounds comes from. Okay. And let's talk about another of Farage's friends, a younger friend in this case, a guy called George Cottrell. We've talked about him on the podcast before. He's often better known by his nickname, Posh George. George, remind us who he is and how questions about him started to swirl and his involvement in funding Farage and Reform UK. So George Crotterall is someone that's been on the political scene in the UK for more than a decade. It's worth winding the clock back a bit and remembering that he was a deputy treasurer for UKIP.

13:55A blast from the past. The Brexit campaigning party. and another important thing to know is that he served about eight months in a US prison for wire fraud. Yeah and we've missed out one scarcely believable but actually true detail which is that George Cottrell has written a book called How to Launder Money. Yes I've read it three times. Have you really? I really have. It's a very interesting book because it does lay out in great detail how one might want to go about laundering money. He describes it as a guide for policymakers. But I think it's incredibly interesting that he's able to offer such detail when one considers that he was found to have advertised money laundering services on the dark web.

14:40He sees it as part of his reform, you know, helping share his knowledge. So as we know, they've got this longstanding friendship and political alliance that goes back for many, many years even though he's only 32 now he was a very young man when he first entered Nigel Forage's orbit and as part of that friendship that they argue but other reporters have suggested this relationship took on a financial element and in and you have this key period the 12 months before someone becomes an MP that falls within a category that means that you should report your financial benefits and any donations you gifts you've received in that time if they could be seen to influence you politically.

15:20And during that time, Farage was, according to the Sunday Times, were first to report this, he was receiving accommodation. He was getting a social media team finance for him, building up what he's described as his career as an influencer. And those benefits amounted to sort of equivalent to tens of thousands of pounds worth of financial assistance. And that investigation will be resumed after the Clacton by-election by the Parliamentary Standards as commissioner, as well as the one into the£5 million. Yeah. And that accommodation that you referred to that Cottrell lent Nigel Farage is not just any old little flat, is it?

15:54It's a five story house really near Buckingham Palace. Yes, it is a fancy gaffe. And Farage never denied this, but he has said that any help Cottrell gave him was, quote, not a matter of public interest, quote, quote, and that support was irrelevant and literally no one's business as he wasn't in politics at that time. But didn't Cottrell also pay for some security for Farage? Yes, that's another thing that has been described as one of the benefits he was received. Interestingly, Nigel Farage did declare foreign travel paid for by George Cottrell on the Register of Interests, and that also included security as well.

16:31So he seems to have had, going by his description of what the£5 million was for, he seems to have had multiple parties funding his security costs for him.

16:46And you've since broken a number of stories about George Cottrell's mum. She's quite an intriguing figure, isn't she? Tell us about her and what she has given to reform. Fiona Cottrell is often referred to as a former girlfriend of Prince Charles, but I'm sure there's much more to her life than that. But she's the mother of George Cottrell. She lives a quiet life in the countryside, as far as we can establish. and rather than usually because we understand that she's a woman of quite modest means you know well to do and everything but not a multi multi multi multi-millionaire as with other reform donors she has given a lot of money to reform so she's done it in two different ways one of those ways was directly under her own name and these were known about these donations were public as is normal you can see them in the data from the electoral commission and that was a couple of lots in May 2024 of 250 grand, another lot of 250 grand in 2025.

17:44But what we revealed is that she gave£1 million, just over, to Britain Means Business. Now, you might know Britain Means Business by its old name, which is Leave Means Leave. Right, yes. Which was a fundraising organisation for different Brexit parties. In its new guise, Richard Tice, the Deputy Leader of reform is the sole director of britain means business okay and it acts as a fundraising vehicle for reform uk i think one of the things that has struck me and others in this reporting is that this money was rooted in a very unusual way so it went this one million to britain means business went by an obscure australian money exchange service called one fi and it's a really unusual thing for someone who by all accounts is not someone who's terribly online and they're not super interested in computing etc or sort of doing elaborate things online to choose an obscure australian-based money exchange service for such a large sum is really something that raises a lot of questions and the times has reported that george cattrell shortly before that transfer 48 hours before had set up a Wannify account.

18:59So again, it raises bigger questions about who's really driving this decision making or some of this activity. That money goes in and then almost immediately within 48 hours, half of it is transferred into Reform UK just weeks before the general election in June 2024. And what could be the advantage of funneling it via Britain Means Business rather than just giving it straight to Reform? Well, it depends on one's perspective, but the key differences from the outside is that the source of the donation the one million pounds was effectively hidden from public view so it was on the electoral commission data as Britain's Means Business was the donor not Fiona Cottrell so that was a key key difference there.

19:45Right okay so that when the likes of you or our colleague Henry Dyer who in his spare time seems to like rifling through the electoral commission database. It wouldn't necessarily raise as many red flags if it was yet another huge donation from this Fiona Cottrell character. And even under her own name, she had already been, at that time, one of the most important donors to Reform UK. Okay. And are you allowed to do that? Are there any questions over the legality of that money that went to Britain Means Business, half of which was given to reform? In theory, you can give to organisations that can then give to political parties.

20:19That's not necessarily illegal, but what can fall into a difficult territory legally, and we know that that's being examined at the moment, is that you shouldn't try to obscure the origins of a donation, because obviously, speaking in general terms now, not about this specific donation, but if you were to do that all the time and say, oh, it's Joe Bloggs that gave, but really it's Joe Smith, then you effectively undermine the principle of transparency, which is meant to help keep British elections free and fair. So the question is less about whether or not it was okay to give money to Britain Means Business and for that money to be given to reform, although that is a point of public debate.

21:00The bigger question is, and what we also revealed, is not only was the 5 million a cause of concern for bankers who then raised a report with the NCA, this 1 million pounds was a cause of concern for bankers who also reported it to the NCA. And that was because they were concerned about the origin of this money. They weren't sure where it was coming from. They flagged that there'd been large dollar deposits in Fiona Cottrell's account. And they thought there was a risk that it wasn't actually her money moving. So they raised those concerns. And we know now that there is a police investigation into the donations made in both May and June by Fiona Cottrell.

21:43And we additionally reported that, according to sources, both she and her son George have been interviewed under caution by the police. Right, okay. Even that George is spending most of his time in Montenegro, isn't he? And you had this other exclusive last week about the Cottrells, didn't you? Tell us about that. What I revealed, again, relying on my financial industry sources, was that George had made, in total$2 million worth of transfers into his mother's account within 24 to 72 hours of her donations each time to Reform UK. So to take one example, there was a deposit of$1.4 million, which using exchange rate data from the time is pretty directly comparable to the exact amount of money that was then transferred to Britain's means business.

22:33And perhaps we can only hypothesise, but why would George Cottrell not just give that money directly to reform? That is a really interesting question. I'm going to avoid calling it a million dollar question. His lawyers have said that he is a permissible donor, which is jargon for he's allowed to donate, even though he's not resident in the UK, you can be what's called an overseas voter, which means you are legally allowed to donate to UK political parties. But what they haven't explained is how he qualifies as a permissible donor when he's resident outside the UK and when he became a permissible donor.

23:12So there could be a question over the permissibility of his status. There's also, I guess, a PR media question, which was, were they reluctant to get large amounts of money from someone who's a convicted fraudster? or broader questions about, okay, according to sources, George transferred the money to his mum. But where did that original money come from? Was it from George directly? But that's speculation, so we don't know at this stage. And how's George explained himself? I mean, how do you explain giving$2 million to your mum? So the lawyers acting for him have at no point denied that their client made large financial gifts to his mother.

23:51But they have said that any donations she did make were a decision for her. And what she said? We've attempted to seek comment from Fiona Cottrell several times. She has not responded on each occasion. Right, so that is Cottrell mother and son. That is Christopher Harbour and his£5 million done. But Richard Tice, who you've already referred to, is also facing some tricky questions, isn't he? And he is the MP for Boston in Lincolnshire, a very wealthy guy himself, and he is the deputy leader of reform. So we've touched on Richard Tice's involvement previously, but just to give a refresher, he's the sole director of Britain Means Business.

24:28He was responsible for transferring half a million pounds from Britain Means Business into Reform UK. He is additionally facing some questions over an£80 ,000 loan that he received to his company, Tice and Investments Limited, from George Cottrell. So this was a loan that wasn't declared anywhere it was secret he says it was a corporate loan and therefore didn't need to be declared what's really important is it shows that george is really enmeshed in the finances of both the leader and the deputy leader of this and now major political force in the uk yeah they don't seem to see a need for a line between his potential personal or private business involvement in their in their financial interests and then his role as someone who allegedly helps fundraise for the party and is also potentially helping the party with sort of benefits in kind so paying for things here and there.