PA NewsPolice are investigating payments to Reform UK by a company controlled by the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, BBC News has learned.
Britain Means Business gave the party two donations of £250,000 in the run-up to the 2024 general election, when Tice was party chairman.
Tice has said the money was given to his firm by Fiona Cottrell, a significant donor to Reform UK and mother of a convicted fraudster with close links to Nigel Farage.
Tice said: “This is the first I have heard of it – if true why are the Met Police briefing the BBC before contacting interested parties? Is the Met leadership now engaged in the widespread politically motivated smear campaign against Reform and its leaders?”
That investigation relates to legislation governing elections, which bans concealing or disguising donations derived from an “impermissible” donor, or the use of “false” information about a donation including the amount or the identity of the donor.
The BBC has asked Fiona Cottrell for comment.
‘Stringent vetting’
Britain Means Business, which is solely owned and controlled by Tice, received £1m from Fiona Cottrell in June 2024.
Disclosures to the Electoral Commission show that the company then donated a total of £500,000 to Reform UK in the same month.
Tice told the BBC earlier this month that it was entirely his choice for the company to give half of the money from Fiona Cottrell to his party.
The payments came to light when the Guardian newspaper revealed they had been flagged to the National Crime Agency as part of its Suspicious Activity Reports programme.
Now BBC News has learned that they are part of the Met’s investigation into donations to Reform UK.
The BBC understands that the party was not aware of the investigation into the payments from Britain Means Business.
A Reform UK spokesman said: “Reform takes pride in its stringent vetting of donations and always ensures that the Electoral Commission guidelines on donations, as set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, are strictly followed, as has been the case with donations so far.”
‘Frozen’ account
All four payments were made in the weeks before the general election on 4 July 2024, when Farage and Tice were first elected to Parliament:
- The first direct donation from Ms Cottrell of £250,000 appeared in the party’s accounts on 9 May
- The second, also £250,000, appeared a few weeks later on 29 May, just over a month before polling day
- One payment from Britain Means Business of £250,000 was made on 10 June
- Another payment from Britain Means Business of £250,000 was made on 12 June.
Tice was chairman of Reform UK until 11 July, having previously been its leader. He then became deputy leader.
Records of all the donations have been published by the Electoral Commission.
Records on the Commission’s website show Reform’s bank account was frozen in the weeks before the election.
Other notes on the site suggest the account was first frozen a maximum of nine days after Britain Means Business’s second donation.
It is not known why the account was frozen.
A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission said it was aware that the Met had issued a statement about an ongoing police investigation and it had no further comment to make.
The Met investigation into all four donations has been ongoing for more than a year.
Asked about the donations from Britain Means Business, the Met repeated a statement originally issued earlier this month after The Times’s investigation.
A spokesperson said: “An investigation was launched in February 2025 after a referral was made to the Metropolitan Police by the Electoral Commission relating to donations made to a political party ahead of the 2024 UK General Election.”
They added: “Detectives from the Met’s Special Enquiry Team are investigating alleged offences under Section 61 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
“Early investigative advice has been sought from the Crown Prosecution Service and two people have so far been interviewed under caution. No arrests have been made.
“An offence under this section is not one that the Electoral Commission can investigate and, as such, it is a matter for the police.”
The concept of “permissible” and “impermissible” donors was introduced by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, which prohibits foreign funding for political parties.
The legislation means parties can only accept money from a permissible donor. Permissible donors include individuals registered on an electoral register and companies registered in the UK.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) announced on Friday that it had launched an internal investigation in response to complaints from Richard Tice and Nigel Farage about the alleged leaking of their financial information.
It follows reports in the Guardian that some donations made to them and to Tice’s firm Britain Means Business had been flagged to the agency as part of its Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) programme.
According to the NCA, such alerts are made to law enforcement “to potential instances of money laundering”.
SARs are not crime reports.
PA MediaFiona Cottrell’s son, George Cottrell, has been at the centre of a political row in recent weeks.
The Sunday Times has reported he supported Farage by paying for staff and security before the 2024 election, but these benefits were not declared once Farage became an MP. Farage has since stepped down as an MP and is standing for re-election in the constituency of Clacton.
Farage has consistently argued any money given to him before he was elected an MP came in a personal capacity and therefore did not need to be declared. Lawyers for Cottrell have said he “categorically disputes allegations and assertions made by The Sunday Times, which clearly fail to reflect what that publisher was told in advance of its reporting”.
Asked by the Sunday Times if Cottrell had transferred money to his mother before she made donations to Reform UK, his lawyers at Carter Ruck said: “Our client has confirmed his instructions that any donations by his mother have been entirely her own decision.”
George Cottrell has long been a close political and personal ally of the Reform UK leader.
He pleaded guilty to fraud in the United States and spent eight months in jail there, before being released in 2017.
Upon his release he moved back to the UK and now lives in Montenegro.
At a rally in Norfolk on Tuesday Nigel Farage said he had “absolutely no idea” whether George Cottrell had given money to his mother to donate onwards to the party, adding, “What’s it got to do with me how families sort out their finances?”
“If the money was hers legally and she gave the donation, I don’t see what the problem is,” he said.
Britain Means Business was set up in August 2017 under the name Leave Means Leave and campaigned for a “clean Brexit”.
The organisation was set up by Tice and John Longworth, a former boss of the British Chambers of Commerce and prominent Brexit campaigner.
Longworth left Leave Means Leave in January 2020, the month the UK officially left the EU.
A few months later Tice changed the organisation’s name to Britain Means Business. He now solely owns and controls the business.
