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Original poster

Where did Fiona Cottrell get all that money?

163 replies

Kingdomofsleep · 10/07/2026 16:04

I've been a bit fascinated by this latest news about Farage and all the money.

The latest detail is that Fiona Cottrell, the mother of Posh George the crypto fraudster guy, gave Reform donations of £1m and £500k over the past few years.

However! She is a retired stylist who lives in a cottage worth between 500k and 1m, and inherited just £1.5m from her husband when he died. So, comfortably off, but not with millions to spare.

I mean, my house is worth around that (mortgaged), and my dh would raise eyebrows if I donated so much as £500 to a political party. Let alone £1.5m!

She seemingly hasn't earnt it or inherited it. So it seems like someone has given it to her to give to Reform. That someone didn't want to give it to Reform in his own name. If this is true, it's fraud apparently. Who is it? This could be so big.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/police-investigate-reform-donations-by-mother-of-fraudster-who-bankrolled-farage-3kd826j7h

Police investigate Reform donations by mother of fraudster who bankrolled Farage

Fiona Cottrell, mother of George Cottrell, who has been funding the Reform UK leader’s operations, gave £500,000 to the party before the last general election

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/police-investigate-reform-donations-by-mother-of-fraudster-who-bankrolled-farage-3kd826j7h

OP posts:
Thread gallery
18
placemats · 28/07/2026 18:50

Go on, you know you want to.

SerendipityJane · 28/07/2026 18:48

placemats · 28/07/2026 18:40

Are you the experienced player here? 😉

Well experienced enough not to report you 😀

placemats · 28/07/2026 18:40

Are you the experienced player here? 😉

SerendipityJane · 28/07/2026 18:26

placemats · 28/07/2026 18:24

That's complex.

As an experienced player of the game, I trust you to report yourself 😀

placemats · 28/07/2026 18:24

That's complex.

SerendipityJane · 28/07/2026 18:19

placemats · 28/07/2026 18:17

Does he have Daddy issues 🤔

Oedipus ?

placemats · 28/07/2026 18:17

Does he have Daddy issues 🤔

SerendipityJane · 28/07/2026 18:13

placemats · 28/07/2026 16:42

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive"

It's designed to deceive. And yes it's mind-blowing.

Most certainly gorgeous George has entangled family members. He's a convicted fraudster, who snitched to get a lighter sentence.

Show quote history

It used to be a medieval Kings practice to not retain anyone who had betrayed their former master - even if in doing so they helped that King to the throne.

Let's hope Cottrells snitching was a one off, eh ? I would hate for him to land Nigel in it just to save his own skin.

placemats · 28/07/2026 16:42

Kingdomofsleep · 28/07/2026 15:27

I tried to read this but it was such a bewildering list of company names that sound like satire, Vegaplus and Lukoil, and various businessmen I'm not sure if I'm supposed to have heard of...!

I find the cottage-dwelling retired stylist mum way more of a human interest angle into this whole scandal haha.

If this story were a film, it wouldn't pass the Bechdel test eh

Show quote history

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive"

It's designed to deceive. And yes it's mind-blowing.

Most certainly gorgeous George has entangled family members. He's a convicted fraudster, who snitched to get a lighter sentence.

Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 28/07/2026 15:27

TopPocketFind · 27/07/2026 23:22

https://bylinetimes.com/2026/07/27/how-george-cottrells-reform-uk-network-in-montenegro-is-tied-to-sanctioned-russian-oligarchs/

I tried to read this but it was such a bewildering list of company names that sound like satire, Vegaplus and Lukoil, and various businessmen I'm not sure if I'm supposed to have heard of...!

I find the cottage-dwelling retired stylist mum way more of a human interest angle into this whole scandal haha.

If this story were a film, it wouldn't pass the Bechdel test eh

OP posts:
SerendipityJane · 28/07/2026 15:20

TopPocketFind · 27/07/2026 23:22

https://bylinetimes.com/2026/07/27/how-george-cottrells-reform-uk-network-in-montenegro-is-tied-to-sanctioned-russian-oligarchs/

Oh dear, it seems they did believe cr*pto was untraceable.

I am going to suggest they were told by some Russians.

BIossomtoes · 27/07/2026 19:12

harrassedmum · 27/07/2026 18:58

It’s all so dodgy. I hope this all finally ends farages career! His cult following are still swallowing his rubbish though unfortunately

His career may be over on 13 August regardless.

harrassedmum · 27/07/2026 18:58

It’s all so dodgy. I hope this all finally ends farages career! His cult following are still swallowing his rubbish though unfortunately

SerendipityJane · 27/07/2026 18:43

PerkingFaintly · 27/07/2026 18:39

Wherever the money came from, it was somewhere worth going to a lot of trouble to hide.

All this faffing and channelling through nth parties.

Edited

Well clearly, they weren't much cop at it then, as it got ... found out.

I suspect some rather dim Reformites believed cr*pto was untraceable.

Fair point about PAG - not a political party.

I was reading that Farage is in more trouble with the PSC. as he divulged the fact that he is under investigation for the Cottrell cash. Apparently this is explicitly forbidden (presumably to prevent evidence being relocated).

PerkingFaintly · 27/07/2026 18:39

Wherever the money came from, it was somewhere worth going to a lot of trouble to hide.

All this faffing and channelling through nth parties.

LizzieSiddal · 27/07/2026 17:50

The donations are so, so dodgy, my bet would be that is came from Russia, they’ve already seen what Brexit has done to the UK and must see as a bunch of naïve idiots to have voted for it, so why not support a Reform government and weaken us even further?

Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 26/07/2026 20:36

Bromptotoo · 26/07/2026 16:34

Except Palestine Action is not a political party is it?

Show quote history

Exactly, or even if they were, they're not remotely mainstream, they have no MPs or MEPs... I think one of their members stood once as an independent in a local council election iirc. Not particularly comparable

OP posts:
Bromptotoo · 26/07/2026 16:34

SerendipityJane · 26/07/2026 14:45

Also, the freezing of the bank account of a political party is unheard of in modern times,

Not really. Just ask the Palestine Action Group ...

Except Palestine Action is not a political party is it?

SerendipityJane · 26/07/2026 14:45

Also, the freezing of the bank account of a political party is unheard of in modern times,

Not really. Just ask the Palestine Action Group ...

SwedishEdith · 25/07/2026 22:44

Farage and co have never cared about the little people. It's the oldest trick in the book to pretend to to gain power.

Teanbiscuits33 · 25/07/2026 22:31

His gullible minions on Facebook are licking his boots over the Iranian agent channel migrant story. The establishment haven’t been listening to him apparently when he’s been saying it for years! I’m not on Facebook anymore but I do get to see certain posts through others. I hope people are calling him out for being complicit 😂. What a snake.

Original poster
Kingdomofsleep · 25/07/2026 22:23

TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 21:52

From Pogrund on x

Reform had its bank account frozen at height of general election after potentially illegal donations from George Cottrell's mother and Richard Tice We reveal Arbuthnot Latham, its bank, blocked payments for two weeks after suspect transaction

Farage and Tice have vocally campaigned against the "banking establishment". Yet neither man has ever discussed the fact the party's account were frozen by the day of the general election in 2024. This came after bankers referred £1m+ of suspect payments to the NCA.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-uk-bank-account-frozen-george-cottrell-mother-3vr75zb9r

That was a good read - they actually mentioned the Coutts incident in this but not in more detail than we have here.

It seems that Reform were forced to return some of their donations within 30 days. Good grief. Also, the freezing of the bank account of a political party is unheard of in modern times, the article says. Reform is record-breakingly dodgy, basically.

It's kind of sad because so many ordinary people are relying on them to fulfil their promises of (say) welfare reform and so on, when really I increasingly suspect that Farage and co don't genuinely care about any of that. This crapto deregulation is all they're really in it for.

OP posts:
TopPocketFind · 25/07/2026 22:12

Teanbiscuits33 · 18/07/2026 22:10

Copy and paste the times link into here and it should work. I can read it, it just doesn’t allow me to paste the resulting link onto this thread.

this still works for the Times article

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