The Metropolitan Police are investigating four donations totalling £1 million made to Reform UK ahead of the 2024 general election, including £500,000 channelled through a company controlled by deputy leader Richard Tice, BBC News has learned.
Police are investigating payments made to Reform UK by a company controlled by the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, BBC News has learned. Britain Means Business, which is solely owned and controlled by Tice, donated £500,000 to the party in the run-up to the 2024 general election, when Tice served as party chairman. The Metropolitan Police confirmed the payments form part of a wider investigation into four donations made to Reform UK during the campaign, examining possible offences under electoral law.
The four donations under investigation
According to Electoral Commission records, all four payments were made in the weeks before the general election on 4 July 2024, when Nigel Farage and Richard Tice were first elected to Parliament. Two donations of £250,000 each were made directly to Reform UK by Fiona Cottrell, a significant party donor: the first appeared in the party’s accounts on 9 May, and the second on 29 May, just over a month before polling day. A further two payments of £250,000 each were made by Britain Means Business, on 10 June and 12 June.
Detectives from the Met’s Special Enquiry Team are investigating alleged offences under Section 61 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, which makes it a criminal offence to disguise the true source of a political donation or to provide false information about it, including the amount involved or the identity of the donor.
How the money reached Reform UK
Britain Means Business received £1 million from Fiona Cottrell in June 2024. Tice has said it was entirely his own decision for the company to pass on half of that sum, £500,000, to Reform UK, with the remaining £500,000 staying within the company. According to reports, the £1 million paid into Britain Means Business was routed through an Australian financial platform called Oneify before reaching the company. Investigators have reportedly been working with Australian authorities to trace the original source of the funds.
Reports have also claimed that George Cottrell, Fiona Cottrell’s son and a convicted fraudster with close links to Nigel Farage, opened a Oneify account just days before the £1 million transfer, though there is no public evidence confirming his account was the source of the money. Fiona Cottrell is reported to have received multiple large deposits into her own bank account shortly before making the transfer, with investigators reportedly unable to establish the ultimate origin of those funds. George Cottrell has not been charged with any offence in connection with the donations.
During the final weeks of the 2024 campaign, the funds are reported to have provided Reform UK with a significant financial boost at a time when the party was seeking money to support its efforts in key target constituencies.
How the investigation began
The Electoral Commission referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police in February 2025, as the Commission does not itself have the power to investigate alleged criminal offences under Section 61. A Met 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. 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 investigation has now been ongoing for more than a year, and the Met has confirmed no arrests have been made.
Reform UK’s response
The BBC understands that Reform UK was not aware of the investigation into the payments from Britain Means Business before this was reported. 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.”
Tice has consistently maintained that Fiona Cottrell was the legitimate donor of the £1 million, that the donation complied with electoral law, and that he personally chose to pass £500,000 of that sum on to Reform UK. Responding to news of the investigation, 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?”
Frozen account and separate NCA inquiry
Electoral Commission records show that Reform UK’s bank account was frozen in the weeks before the election, with notes on the Commission’s website suggesting the account was first frozen no more than nine days after Britain Means Business’s second donation. The reason for the freeze has not been disclosed. A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission said it was aware the Met had issued a statement about the ongoing investigation and had no further comment to make.
Separately, the National Crime Agency announced on Friday that it had launched an internal investigation into the alleged leaking of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) relating to the donations, following complaints from Tice and Farage. This followed earlier reporting by the Guardian that some of the donations made to the pair and to Britain Means Business had been flagged to the agency under its SARs programme. According to the NCA, such alerts are made to law enforcement in relation to “potential instances of money laundering,” and SARs are not themselves crime reports. The NCA’s internal inquiry is separate from the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into the donations.
Legal background
The concept of “permissible” and “impermissible” donors was introduced under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, which prohibits foreign funding of UK political parties. Under the legislation, parties may only accept donations from permissible donors, which include individuals registered on a UK electoral register and companies registered in the UK.
