Nigel Farage is facing questions over why he is being accompanied on the campaign trail by an aristocratic friend who spent eight months in jail in the US for wire fraud.
Known as “Posh George”, George Cottrell was a volunteer for Farage in 2016 before his arrest in the US on money-laundering charges and ultimate guilty plea to one count of wire fraud in a case unrelated to his work at Ukip, Farage’s party at the time. The crime was committed in 2014, before Cottrell worked for either the anti-EU party or Farage.
Cottrell served eight months after a plea agreement that reduced his possible prison sentence from a maximum of 20 years, according to court documents at the time.
He has been seen at Farage’s side on the campaign trail over the last week, including the day the Reform UK leader was hit by a milkshake thrown by a member of the public.
Farage, who made a surprise return as leader of Reform UK a week ago, appeared to brush off questions about his association with Cottrell when asked about it on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. “Firstly, I always stand by my friends,” he said.
“Secondly, there is a thing called Christian forgiveness. If people get convicted or do something wrong, well, they have another chance in life to go on and prove themselves.”
Reform said Cottrell had no official role in Farage’s campaign and was an unpaid volunteer.
Farage is expected to announce more policies for Reform on Monday, a week after deciding to take over from Richard Tice as leader.
He told the BBC on Sunday that he supported raising the personal tax allowance to £20,000 a year and raising the inheritance tax threshold to £2m – huge tax cuts that would cost many billions. Farage claimed that he would be able to carry out £50bn in spending cuts and through tax changes.
At the time of his arrest in 2016, Cottrell had been working in Farage’s office and claimed on his LinkedIn account to have co-directed Ukip’s EU referendum campaign fundraising. Media accounts at the time described Cottrell as a familiar face on Farage’s campaign bus before the EU referendum.
After the arrest, Farage called Cottrell a “22-year-old unpaid volunteer and party supporter” and said he knew nothing of the “series of allegations” against him.
