The Metropolitan police are investigating two £250,000 donations made to Reform UK through a company controlled by the party's deputy leader, Richard Tice, in the weeks before the 2024 general election, the Guardian reported on Saturday.
Scotland Yard is scrutinising the payments, which were made to the party by Britain Means Business, a firm of which Tice is the sole director. The company received £1m from Fiona Cottrell in June 2024, roughly half of which was subsequently passed to the party, according to disclosures made to the Electoral Commission.
The inquiry forms part of a wider investigation that has been running for more than a year. It was launched in February 2025 after the Electoral Commission referred donations made to a political party ahead of the 2024 election to the force. In total, four donations are understood to fall within its scope.
The development comes amid a series of financial controversies engulfing Reform UK that have already prompted its leader, Nigel Farage, to resign his Clacton seat and re-contest it in a by-election scheduled for 13 August.
Fiona Cottrell, whose son George is a convicted fraudster with close links to Farage, also made two donations directly to the party, each worth £250,000, in May 2024. These payments are also being examined by detectives.
The Guardian reported earlier this month that Fiona and George Cottrell have been interviewed under criminal caution as part of the investigation. Fiona Cottrell did not respond to the Guardian's attempts to contact her about the donations.
The £1m transfer from Cottrell to Britain Means Business was flagged to the National Crime Agency by bankers through a suspicious activity report. Such reports are not crime reports but exist to identify potential incidents of money laundering. The Guardian understands that neither the NCA nor bankers have been able to trace the source of the original £1m, and that the agency is seeking help from a foreign partner in its attempts to establish where the money originated.
Responding to a query about the investigation from the BBC, 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?"
Tice, who was elected as the MP for Boston and Skegness in the 2024 poll, has previously confirmed that his company received donations from Fiona Cottrell but described reports about the money as a "politically motivated smear campaign". He told the BBC earlier this month that it was entirely his choice for the company to pass half of the money to the party.
A Reform UK spokesperson 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."
The investigation is one of several controversies facing the party. Internal briefing documents circulated to Reform councillors last week instructed them to respond to questions about the police inquiry by saying: "It is now clear that the establishment will try anything to stop us." The guidance emerged as polling suggested the party's popularity was falling. A YouGov poll for the Times and Sky News put Reform on 23%, Labour on 21% and the Conservatives on 20%.
On Friday, the National Crime Agency said it had referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after Reform accused it of illegally leaking banking information relating to the party, including transactions involving Tice. In a letter to Reform's lawyers, the NCA confirmed that its professional standards unit had begun a leak investigation. The agency does not confirm or deny the receipt of suspicious activity reports, nor comment on how any such report is used.
Tice alleged: "I believe the National Crime Agency has leaked confidential conversations between me and my bank managers as well as multiple bank statements from different banks to the Guardian. One or more people at the NCA have thus committed numerous criminal acts. This appears to be a deliberate tactic to smear and discredit me."
The criminal inquiry runs alongside a separate parliamentary process. Farage is the subject of referrals to the parliamentary standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, covering a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, allegations of undeclared properties, lobbying of the Bank of England on cryptocurrency policy, and undeclared financial support from George Cottrell.
The Sunday Times reported on 4 July that Farage had not declared benefits including security, drivers, staff and accommodation paid for by George Cottrell. Reform's treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said Cottrell was an "old friend" of Farage with no formal role in the party, and confirmed Cottrell had paid for Farage's security and staff but said this occurred "before he became a Member of Parliament" in July 2024.
Farage resigned as MP for Clacton on 7 July, interrupting the standards investigation, which would resume were he to be re-elected. He confirmed he would stand in the resulting by-election, which the then prime minister, Keir Starmer, described as a "desperate stunt" by a politician "up to his neck in sleaze".
A record 34 candidates are contesting the seat, breaking the previous record for a UK parliamentary by-election set in 2008. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green party and Restore Britain are not standing.
An Electoral Commission spokesperson said it was aware that the Met had issued a statement about an ongoing police investigation and had no further comment to make.
George Cottrell was arrested in 2016 while attending the Republican National Convention alongside Farage, and US prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, blackmail and extortion. Following a plea agreement in 2017, he pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud and served eight months in prison.