NIGEL FARAGE did not declare gifts and benefits provided by a convicted fraudster and crypto-entrepreneur, Reform’s economic spokesperson admitted on Sunday.

Ex-Tory turncoat MP Robert Jenrick insisted that the Reform leader did not need to declare the staff, security and accommodation provided by George Cottrell as they were personal gifts provided before Mr Farage became an MP.

Asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg if Mr Cottrell, who was convicted of wire fraud in the US, paid for staff to run Mr Farage’s social media presence in 2024, Mr Jenrick said: “Yes, absolutely.”

He also acknowledged that his party leader stayed in Mr Cottrell’s five-storey Georgian townhouse near Buckingham Palace “a couple of times” and accepted private security paid for by him.

Mr Jenrick told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: “He’s an old friend of Nigel’s and he supported him in the past before Nigel was even a member of Parliament.

“He has no formal role within Reform whatsoever.”

Asked about an undisclosed £5 million gift to Mr Farage from Thai-based billionaire Christopher Harborn, the Newark MP said: “There’s nothing wrong with it whatsoever. It’s a private gift from a friend to Nigel. Nigel has good friends who support him.”

Discussing an investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner into whether the gifts should have been registered, Mr Jenrick added: “We’re very confident it will be dismissed.”

But Health Secretary James Murray said there were “a lot of questions for” Mr Farage to answer over the funding he accepted from Mr Cottrell, who was jailed for eight months in 2017.

He told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “Frankly, it doesn’t surprise me, because I think quite a lot of questions come up in relation to [Mr Farage’s] finances.

“And he seems to have a bit of a bit of a flexible relationship with transparency, and I put it mildly.”

Under rules in place at the time, new MPs were required to register any gifts worth more than £300 they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift “could not be reasonably thought by others” to relate to their political activities.

Mr Farage should face an investigation by Parliament’s sleaze watchdog over the latest claims about his finances, the Liberal Democrats said.