Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges argues that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is facing his most serious political difficulty yet over his friendship with convicted fraudster George Cottrell, known as "Posh George". Following an investigation by The Sunday Times, the association has grown from a curiosity into a full-blown scandal, and both this matter and a separate undeclared donation are now being examined by Parliament's standards watchdog. Hodges contends that Farage, who has long deflected awkward questions "with a joke and a shrug", can no longer easily brush the issue aside.

The Sunday Times reported that in the run-up to the 2024 General Election, Cottrell provided Farage with security, staff and the use of a five-storey house near Buckingham Palace, none of which was declared in the register of members' interests — echoing Farage's earlier failure to report a £5million donation from Thai crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne. Cottrell, convicted of wire fraud in the US in 2016 after offering to launder money for undercover federal agents, is described as one of Farage's closest confidants. Reform has dismissed the story as "baseless and contrived", but Hodges suggests the affair has too many strands to contain and likens it to the sleaze that damaged Sir Keir Starmer.