Nigel Farage’s trip to Florida where he met Elon Musk was part-funded by his friend and former fraudster George Cottrell, who paid for his £15,000 flight.
The Reform leader accepted the flight for his visit in December last year, when he was pictured smiling with Musk and the Reform party treasurer, Nick Candy.
Farage had been at the New York Young Republicans Club before flying to Florida, and he met Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on 16 December, subsequently releasing a statement saying: “We had a great meeting with Elon Musk for an hour yesterday. We learned a great deal about the Trump ground game and will have ongoing discussions on other areas. We only have one more chance left to save the west and we can do great things together.”
The flight, recorded on Farage’s register of interests, was the first time Cottrell has funded Reform since the election. His mother, Fiona Cottrell, gave the party £500,000 last year.
Cottrell has no official role at Reform but has turned up at many of its press conferences and at its Mayfair fundraiser last month, as well as accompanying Farage during the election campaign.
Known as “Posh George”, Cottrell was a volunteer for Farage in 2016 before his arrest in the US on money-laundering charges and ultimate guilty plea to one count of wire fraud in a case unrelated to his work at Ukip, Farage’s party at the time. The crime was committed in 2014, before Cottrell worked for either the anti-EU party or Farage.
Cottrell served eight months after a plea agreement that reduced his possible prison sentence from a maximum of 20 years, according to court documents at the time.
The latest register of interests shows that Farage also benefited from a £27,600 trip to the US in January to mark the inauguration of Trump as US president, funded by crypto and aviation fuel investor Christopher Harborne.
However, Farage has since admitted he did not “make the cut” for the inauguration ceremony itself, unlike Boris Johnson. The Reform leader has also since been criticised by Musk, who questioned whether he was the right person to lead the UK party, after a disagreement about Farage’s decision to distance Reform from the far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Farage has now made at least eight trips to the US since he was elected as MP for Clacton-on-Sea. Reform has been contacted for comment.
