Nigel Farage faces a battle to remain an MP with the Tories set on reclaiming his Clacton seat if he faces a sleaze probe-induced by-election.
The embattled Reform UK leader is facing growing questions over his financial affairs and is subject to a Parliamentary investigation over a £5million gift from Thailand-based party donor Christopher Harborne.
At the weekend he was again reported to the Westminster sleaze watchdog over the support given to him by long-term associate George Cottrell.
The Sunday Times reported that Cottrell, who has a fraud conviction in the United States, provided funding for staffing and security, and the use of a London townhouse.
Critics have said that this should have been declared under Parliamentary rules, but Mr Farage has claimed he is the victim of an ‘establishment hit job’ and insisted he had committed ‘no wrongdoing’.
If the probe is ruled against the Reform leader and suspends him from the Commons for more than 30 days he would be subject to a recall petition by voters, which could trigger a summer by-election.
A Tory source said: ‘If a by-election in Clacton comes, we will be ready.’
Mr Farage could face a challenge on his right flank, with Restore UK leader Rupert Lowe, a former Reform MP, vowing to throw ‘everything’ at winning as well, having come third in the Makerfield by-election.
If the probe is ruled against the Reform leader and suspends him from the Commons for more than 30 days he would be subject to a recall petition by voters in Clacton, which could trigger a summer by-election
The Sunday Times said Mr Cottrell recruited and paid three staff to work on Mr Farage’s social media before the general election, and has continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian property he rented near Buckingham Palace.
Under rules in place at the time of Mr Farage’s election in 2024, 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.
Labour and the Lib Dems have called for Parliament’s standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg to examine the support from Mr Cottrell.
The Reform leader on Sunday issued a statement insisting he had not broken any rules.
He said: ‘I have done no wrongdoing, followed the rules and I am now considering legal action against The Sunday Times.
‘It’s now clear the establishment will stop at nothing to hurt Reform – we want to smash their cosy consensus.’
Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said Mr Cottrell is an ‘old friend’ of Mr Farage and has ‘no formal role within Reform’.
The Times today reported Mr Cottrell handed out a business card printed with his name, the Reform UK logo and Mr Farage’s official email address, despite having no formal role in the party.
After becoming the MP for Clacton in 2024, Mr Farage registered a £9,000 trip to Belgium donated by Mr Cottrell, and belatedly added £15,000 for a US domestic flight, but no other support.
Asked if Mr Cottrell paid for Mr Farage’s security and staff in 2024, Mr Jenrick told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme he did but this was ‘before he became a Member of Parliament’.
Mr Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the US in 2017 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.
Mr Cottrell 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.
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.
Labour peer Baroness Harriet Harman has accused Mr Farage of trying to ‘delegitimise’ the parliamentary standards process with his claim of an ‘establishment hit job’.
‘He’s attacking and trying to delegitimise the system, and if it comes to a finding by the commissioner that he has been in breach of the rules, the way he’s conducted himself whilst he’s being under investigation will be taken into account as an aggravating fact when it comes to the penalty,’ the former chair of the parliamentary standards committee told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
She added: ‘This is the opposite of an establishment hit job. This is so that the public can know that the establishment, in terms of people with lots of money, are not buying their members of parliament.’
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