Pressure was growing on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Monday night after he was referred to Parliament’s standards commissioner over donations from a convicted criminal.

George Cottrell, 32 – otherwise known as ‘Posh George’ – funded staffing, security and accommodation for Mr Farage that was not declared. Mr Farage claims no rules have been broken because the support was received in the year before he became an MP.

But critics claim he has broken parliamentary rules which require new MPs to register any ‘benefit’ received in the 12 months prior to their election.

This includes any gift exceeding £300 in value and is in ‘any way’ related to their political activities. If there is any doubt, the benefit should be declared, the rules state.

It has also emerged that Mr Cottrell – who claimed he had no official role in Reform UK – had personalised business cards bearing its logo and Mr Farage’s email address.

The cards were uncovered by The Sunday Times, and the discrepancies have prompted other parties to refer the Reform leader to the parliamentary commissioner for standards. 

Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde wrote to Daniel Greenberg to call for an investigation, saying there was a ‘serious question as to whether Mr Farage met his obligations under the Code of Conduct’.

‘The rules are pretty clear – in black and white they say MPs need to declare what they’ve received over the last 12 months,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

George Cottrell pictured with Nigel Farage on the Leave Means Leave campaign trail in 2019

Mr Cottrell’s business card with Nigel Farage’s name and the Reform party logo, despite the leader’s claims he had no involvement in the party

Cottrell was jailed for wire fraud in the US in 2017, serving eight months in an American jail

He said he was elected on the same day as Mr Farage when they were both informed of the rules. He added: ‘He has dined out on a career about taking back control. Yet he won’t tell us – he won’t be straight with us – about who controls him.’ 

But Mr Farage hit back, saying: ‘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.’

But Labour peer Baroness Harriet Harman has accused Mr Farage of trying to ‘delegitimise’ the parliamentary standards process.

The former chairman of the parliamentary standards committee told the BBC: ‘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.’

When he was elected in 2024, the new Clacton MP declared one gift from Mr Cottrell of around £9,000 to cover his costs to attend a Conservative conference in Belgium. But The Sunday Times reported that Mr Cottrell had recruited and paid three staff to improve Mr Farage’s social media presence before the election, which was not declared.

It also said he allowed and still allows the MP to stay at a five-storey house near Buckingham Palace which he rents at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds a month.

Mr Cottrell also appears to have funded Mr Farage’s security, despite claims that a separate donation had covered that cost.

‘Posh George’ was jailed in 2017 after being caught in a US money-laundering sting, admitting wire fraud and serving eight months in a US jail. The aristocrat is seeking a pardon from President Trump, whose vice president JD Vance met Mr Farage in Washington this weekend.

Mr Farage is already under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner for accepting £5million from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The negative headlines seem to be affecting Reform’s performance in the polls, with their lead over Labour falling to two points.

Reform said: ‘George Cottrell is an unpaid volunteer with no formal role at Reform UK, like many thousands of party members.

‘The business card was designed to help donors or other members of the public easily get in touch with Nigel Farage’s office.’