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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Anna Isaac City editor

Revealed: George Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother days before her donations to Reform UK

Cottrell, weaing sunglasses, stands in front of Nigel Farage in a blue suit, surrounded by a crowd
George Cottrell with Nigel Farage in 2019. Sources say the Reform UK leader’s aide deposited several tranches of hundreds of thousands of dollars into his mother Fiona’s account shortly before she donated to the party. Photograph: Mark Kerrison/Alamy

The convicted fraudster George Cottrell transferred a total of more than $2m to his mother, Fiona Cottrell, in the days before her 2024 donations to Reform UK, the Guardian understands.

Financial industry sources told the Guardian that Fiona received one deposit of $1.4m and two tranches of more than $300,000 each – money she attributed to having come from her son, George, when bankers asked about the deposits.

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