Last weekend the Sunday Times revealed that 32-year-old Cottrell had provided Farage with support including for social media campaigns and security. The Guardian subsequently revealed that two loans from Cottrell to deputy Reform leader Richard Tice, and a £1m donation from his mother Fiona Cottrell to Reform fundraising vehicle Britain Means Business, which is owned by Tice, had been referred to the National Crime Agency through suspicious activity reports (SARs). These are a formal mechanism by which banks, solicitors and other regulated parties can send the NCA details about “knowledge or suspicion of money laundering”. They are not evidence of criminal activity.
