Nigel Farage said he has “done no wrongdoing” after it emerged he did not declare benefits provided by an ally once convicted of fraud in the US.

The Sunday Times said, external George Cottrell’s support included security and social media staff who worked on Farage’s online content in the year before he was elected. It also claims Farage used a property rented by Cottrell near Buckingham Palace.

The Reform UK leader responded by insisting he “followed the rules” and also claimed he is the victim of an “establishment hit job”.

Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde has asked the parliamentary standards commissioner to investigate, telling the BBC that Farage needs to be “straight with the British people”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Babarinde said: “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.”

Under parliamentary rules, new MPs must declare financial interests and “registrable benefits” received in the 12 months before their election.

The guidelines say purely personal gifts or benefits do not need to be registered.

Farage is already facing a parliamentary probe over a £5m gift from a billionaire Reform UK donor which was not registered.

He has argued that he did not need to declare the gift because he received it before he was elected as Clacton MP and it was not political.

His team has made a similar argument for why the “in kind” – non-cash – benefits allegedly from Cottrell were not registered.

Cottrell, 32, who admitted a count of wire fraud in the US in 2017, is a long-standing ally of Farage. He was involved with Farage’s former political party Ukip as a volunteer in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.

According to the Sunday Times, Cottrell is a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and is involved with the offshore gambling website Tether.bet.

Farage said: “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.”

When he became an MP, Farage registered a £9,253 trip to Belgium in April 2024 donated by Cottrell, and later added a £15,276 donation from Cottrell for a US domestic flight he provided in December 2024.

No other support from Cottrell is listed in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Labour peer Baroness Harman said the parliamentary rules are intended to give people “trust and confidence” in Parliament and their MPs, before questioning Farage’s language suggesting an “establishment hit job” was taking place.

Baroness Harman, who formerly chaired the House of Commons Committee on Standards, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think what he should be saying is that ‘these rules are important, they keep our Parliament clean, I’m going to at all times comply with them, I have complied with them, I will cooperate with the investigation and I am confident I’ll be found not to have broken the rules’.

“But he’s not doing that. He’s attacking and trying to delegitimise the system and if it comes to a finding by the commissioner that he has been in breach of the rules, the way he’s conducted himself whilst he’s been under investigation will be taken into account as an aggravating fact when it comes to the penalty.”

In 2017, Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the US after pleading guilty to a charge of wire fraud after admitting attempting to defraud criminals on the dark web by posing as a money launderer.

He was arrested in July as he and Farage were preparing to return to the UK after the Republican convention.

In March 2021, Farage stood down as leader of Reform – initially launched as the Brexit Party – and said he intended to step back from party political activity and election campaigning.

He served as the party’s honorary president until early June 2024, when he confirmed he was returning as party leader and standing in the general election. He became Clacton MP in July 2024.

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