Richard Tice has been referred to parliament’s standards watchdog over an undeclared loan of nearly £80,000 from Nigel Farage’s aide George Cottrell.

Something to do with Cottrell’s mother as well.

My goodness they are a dodgy lot I think.

I remember that they got fined a lot of money (70000k) for fiddling the books in the leave campaign, and they were all implicated - Tice, Farage etc.

Reform UK currently only has seven Members of Parliament in the House of Commons (and 4 of those 7 defected from the Conservative Party) and three former MPs. One former MP decided to resign of his own volition and one former MP left the party to set up Restore UK. No wonder Farage is not calling for a General election as you might expect. Reform UK simply is not in a position to govern, not least because of dodgy financial dealings and Ministerial code of conduct concerns but also lack of capacity. It's no wonder Reform UK has completely lost its 10 point lead in the polls recently.

Current Reform UK MPs
Lee Anderson: MP for Ashfield (Chief Whip and party chairman)
Richard Tice: MP for Boston and Skegness (Deputy Leader)
Sarah Pochin: MP for Runcorn and Helsby (won via by-election by 6 votes)
Danny Kruger: MP for East Wiltshire (defected from Conservatives)
Robert Jenrick: MP for Newark (defected from Conservatives)
Andrew Rosindell: MP for Romford (defected from Conservatives)
Suella Braverman: MP for Fareham and Waterlooville (defected from Conservatives)

Former Reform UK MPs
Nigel Farage: Former MP for Clacton, who resigned his seat to trigger a by-election.
Rupert Lowe: Former MP for Great Yarmouth, who left the party to form Restore Britain.
James McMurdock: Former MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, who relinquished the party whip.








Another investigation into a Reform politician?
Starmer was wrong to take those freebies, but this is possibly different level corruption.

Mr Tice, of Dubai fame, being investigated for monetary infringements: colour me surprised (not)

It's no surprise really - more a case that since the 2024 election, NCA and bank alerts, police investigations etc - that the chickens are coming home to roost....

I said it on another thread- Farage's decision to resign and call a by election when he did- is very poor timing.

George Cottrell is a convicted fraudster. His mother Fiona has given Reform over a million pounds.
The leaders of Reform are hand in glove with criminals.

James McMurdock, independent in name only, who despite claiming to have been exonerated over taking Covid bounce bank loans on dormant companies, has not been re-admitted into Reform. I find that interesting.

He is also kicking off as The Sunday Times Insight team are having a close look at the loans:

removepaywalls.com/https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/suspended-reform-mp-james-mcmurdock-covid-loan-nmvxvdrrd

He’s now published a very childish letter calling Daniel Greenberg the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards “the headmaster” showing that he [McMurdock] is entirely missing the point.

Why did he take bounce back loans amounting to £70,000 (£50,000 and £20,000) on two companies which were not trading? One would need a turnover of £200,000 to secure £50,000 and the other a turnover of £80,000 to secure £20,000.

His CV shows he was a “senior associate” at Standard Bank in the eight years before he became an MP so covering the time of the pandemic.

When he was first elected he claimed he was taking a substantial pay cut to become an MP. That was a lie. His former boss say he earned around £50,000 to £60,000.

bylinetimes.com/2024/07/17/reform-mp-james-mcmurdock-lied-to-voters-former-colleague-alleges/

What was the £70,000 for? He’s claiming the money has been repaid but that’s not the point. The point is did he commit fraud in the first place?

What a rabble the lot of them are.

Good, that it starting to be noticed.

Maremia

Good, that it starting to be noticed.

I agree

It was always going to happen when they finally became MP’s. If only the media would hound them as much as they hound other parties, though. They’re only doing it now imo because it’s getting too bad to ignore.

Glenn Gibbons seems like a charmer.

MayBee70

It was always going to happen when they finally became MP’s. If only the media would hound them as much as they hound other parties, though. They’re only doing it now imo because it’s getting too bad to ignore.

Yes I agree and about time!

I also agree- and it is about time....

Perhaps it is 'perfect timing'?

Despite Tice claiming that Fiona Cottrell comes from an old and successful aristocratic family, to give the impression that she's wealthy and could afford to make very large donations to Reform, it now transpires the Posh George gave her $2 million just days before she did so after promising the party he would get more money to them somehow before the 2024 election

www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/29/george-cottrell-transferred-2m-mother-beforer-reform-uk-donations

Tricky Dicky caught lying again.

Graphite

Despite Tice claiming that Fiona Cottrell comes from an old and successful aristocratic family, to give the impression that she's wealthy and could afford to make very large donations to Reform, it now transpires the Posh George gave her $2 million just days before she did so after promising the party he would get more money to them somehow before the 2024 election

www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/29/george-cottrell-transferred-2m-mother-beforer-reform-uk-donations

Tricky Dicky caught lying again.

they are a shady lot aren't they? I love the name Tricky Dicky, sums up Tice exactly

Any MP/Political Party with suspicious donations should be investigated by the appropriate authorities.

No reasonable person would disagree that suspicious donations to any MP/political party/ party leader should be investigated by the appropriate authorities - no one wants corruption and sleaze in British politics.

The Electoral Commission publishes it investigations on such matters line, lSubject, Investigated for, Decision and Summaries of Reasons. The Police also carry out investigations. Plus suspicious declared donations almost always/usually attract media scrutiny also.

We await outcome of Police investigation into Reform donations as currently being reported in the press. We also wait the outcome Farage's undeclared £5million investigation -temporarily suspended.

I cant remember of any party donations suspected of breaching electoral law for other political parties other than Reform UK in recent years- apart from a £2.6million possible breach to the Conservative Party by Wafic Said (barred by law from donating as he was a Canadian citizen and not eligible to vote in the UK. He first gave £300k to the Conservative Party in the 1990s but stropped due to the scandal that created. Following that his wife gave 40 donations over the year to the party under her name and she was eligible to vote. She gave Boris Johnson received a £10,000 contribution for his leadership campaign which Boris did declare.

Boris's personal office of course also received his own £1million
donation from Christopher Harborne on 12 January 2023. Days later, on 19 January 2023 QinetQ, part owned by Harborne, won a UK government £80million MOD contract. That also was heavily criticised for obvious reasons. Boris by this time had been forced to quit as PM the summer before and was no longer PM. The £1million Hargrove donation was given to Boris's office company not a personal cash sum and he did declare it.

Unlike Boris, Farage failed to declare the £5 million cash sum he received from Harborne. I guess he preferred to keep it secret and hoped it would never be discovered.

Harborne is a common denominator. His £ amounts very quickly escalated from £1 million to Boris in 2023 to £5million one year later to Farage in 2024. Boris's had already been pushed out of office- it remains to be seen what happens to Farage, at the forthcoming Clacton by election, thereafter if his investigation resumes and to the pattern of Reform UK falling in the polls week by week.

Plus it appears it's a Reform UK kiss goodbye to the Manchester Mayor by election meanwhile.