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Reform leader Nigel Farage has brought back into his inner circle an aristocrat nicknamed “Posh George” who was once jailed for serious fraud – despite claiming Reform is “anti-elitist” and the “party of law and order”.
Farage, who announced this week he was taking over Reform, had a milkshake thrown over him during a visit to Clacton on Wednesday, where he is to stand as an MP, hoping to win election to Parliament at his eighth attempt.
This newspaper can now reveal that one of the men escorting Farage on the trip, and who was seen dining with the 60-year-old at an upmarket restaurant in early April, is his former Chief of Staff George Cottrell.
Cottrell comes from a long line of aristocrats; his late grandfather was a baron, his parents are wealthy landowners with links to the Royal Family, and his uncle – Lord Hesketh, who is also a baron – is a former Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords and Treasurer of the Conservative Party.
Farage disowned Cottrell after he was sentenced in 2017 to eight months in a US jail after prosecutors agreed to dismiss 20 counts – including that he conspired to launder millions of dollars worth of drug money using offshore bank accounts – in return for him pleading guilty to a single count of wire fraud in which Cottrell admitted to explaining how criminal proceeds could be laundered.
When asked in September 2018 about Cottrell’s previous role – which Farage said was “unpaid” – he added that he “can’t be responsible for what everyone around me is up to”. Cottrell, 30, has since joined Farage’s advisory board.
It is not clear what Cottrell’s role in Reform is, or whether he is now being paid, but a source close to Farage told Byline Times: “I don’t believe he has an official party title but is an affable chap with loads of money who’d seemingly do anything for Nigel.”
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The apparent involvement in Reform’s ranks of a Blue-blooded convicted criminal is at odds with the party positioning itself as the “party of law and order” and which accuses the government of being “soft on crime”, with “crime solving…at an all-time low”.
Reform also claims to be committed to constitutional reform in a country it says is “ruled by an arrogant and out of touch elite”, in which “patronage around the House of Lords and honours system is leading to corruption in public life”.
Reform did not return a request for comment.
Who is ‘Posh George’?
Cottrell was born in London, England, to an aristocratic family. His father, Mark Cottrell, a businessman from Gloucestershire, attended Gordonstoun School with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, while his mother, The Honourable Fiona Watson, a daughter of the late Rupert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton, was a former glamour model and girlfriend of King Charles III.
Raised and educated on the private island of Mustique, Cottrell – who has had a four-year, on-off relationship with Made In Chelsea star and I’m A Celeb winner Georgia Toffolo, 29 – attended Malvern College, although he was expelled for illegal gambling.
Cottrell’s penchant for gambling has led him to be a high-stakes poker player. He was reported by the Daily Mail to have last month lost £16 million in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro while playing against Chinese billionaires, Hollywood celebrities and some of the world’s best poker stars.
Such financial derring-do has also served Cottrell well in his career, as he is understood to have held jobs at private banks.
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It was during this period that Cottrell “learned about the murky and complicated world of ‘shadow banking’, secret offshore accounts and sophisticated financial structures”, according to one Daily Telegraph profile. As The Daily Beast reported in 2017, one of his roles included helping high net worth individuals shift their money across borders.
Cottrell’s background dealing with big finance saw him appointed Deputy Treasurer of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) after the 2015 general election. He also became the party’s lead fundraiser, and Chief of Staff to Farage, who was at the time UKIP leader.
A UKIP insider told The Daily Beast that Cottrell was remarkably effective and knowl