The go-to place to learn about what's going on inside Reform UK
📢 Welcome to the first edition of Reform Watch
This is a brand-new newsletter about Reform UK, the first far-right party to win seats in parliament. This means there are now MPs in the House of Commons pushing for mass deportations and cozying up to Donald Trump.
Reform Watch is going to hold Nigel Farage and his party to account. Landing in your inbox every fortnight, it will be the go-to place to learn about what’s going on inside Reform.
🔎 This week’s deep dive: We investigate “Posh George”, the convicted fraudster and mystery man at the heart of Reform UK.
Just who is Posh George?
George Cottrell is Nigel Farage’s right-hand man.
Nicknamed “Posh George”, his mum once dated King Charles and he is closely involved in Reform UK’s operation. He is often photographed at events with Farage, and last year paid £15,000 for his boss to visit Elon Musk in Florida.
But what exactly does Cottrell do for the party? “There is one rule: don’t ask what George does,” a Reform staffer has said.
We know he’s an aristocratic private banker who was once convicted of fraud in the US. He has his own PR team and has hired an expensive law firm to monitor the media for stories about him.
Today a HOPE not hate investigation has unearthed some even stranger details about George Cottrell. We looked into four key statements that either he has made in the media or have been made about him. None of them stand up to scrutiny.Was he a banker at JP Morgan and Credit Suisse? đź’Ľ
A LinkedIn page in Cottrell’s name said he worked for the two private banks as a teenager at the same time.
We asked both banks, who said they had no record of him working there.Was he in the Army? đź’‚
A recent article quoted an anonymous school friend who said Cottrell enlisted as a squaddie, doing several months of basic training. But we asked the Army and they said there was no record of him ever serving.Why was he arrested in the US in 2016 and convicted of fraud? đź‘®
In an interview, Cottrell said he went to a boozy dinner in Las Vegas with property investors who asked him how to launder drug money. He said he drunkenly gave them advice and never contacted them again. But his own guilty plea in court said he knew what he was doing: he posted an offer to illegally launder money on the dark web and plotted a criminal scheme over seven months. What he didn’t know was that those property investors were undercover agents with the US Internal Revenue Service.Has he kicked his gambling habit? 💰
In earlier interviews, Cottrell has said his troubles with gambling got him expelled from school and disinherited by his parents. But recently he bragged about losing $53 million playing poker in a casino.
Is a self-confessed gambling addict capable of losing a fortune in a night of cards best placed to steer Reform towards Downing Street?
Cottrell declined to comment on the record. His representative told us that he has never “made misleading claims about his past.”
In promoting Reform last month, Nigel Farage told an audience: “Vote for a lawmaker, not a lawbreaker.”
On this, he’s right.
👉 Click here to read the full story.
Read more
Hey, John. We’re trialling Reform Watch newsletter with our supporters for a limited time. If you’d like to keep receiving these emails after the trial ends, let us know below.
✅ Yes – keep me on the Reform Watch list
While you're here...
🕵️ Reform UK is desperate to look respectable, but the truth tells a different story. Help expose the lies and show why they are not fit to lead.
📲 Forward this email or share the blog in your WhatsApp groups.
Share via WhatsApp
Promoted by Nick Lowles on behalf of HOPE not hate at 167-169 Great Portland Street. 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.
This email was sent to:
[email protected]
Click here to reduce the amount of emails you receive from us.Click here to unsubscribe - we'll be sorry to see you go.Keep up to date with us on X, Facebook and Instagram.If you'd like to fund our work in a more sustainable way, you can join the HOPE Action Fund here.
