Has Nigel Farage broken parliamentary rules by failing to declare benefits provided by an ally who’s a convicted criminal? He says he hasn’t.  However, the Sunday Times reports that George Cottrell supplied security & social media staff who worked on Mr Farage's online content in the year before he was elected. It also claims the Reform leader used a property rented by Cottrell near Buckingham Palace. Mr Farage is already facing a parliamentary investigation over that £5m from a crypto billionaire based in Thailand, which wasn’t  registered. He says that was for personal security & was a personal gift/non-political His team have made a similar argument for why the "in kind" - non-cash - benefits allegedly from George Cottrell weren’t registered Under parliamentary rules, new MPs must declare financial interests and "registrable benefits" received in the 12 months before their election. The guidelines say purely personal gifts or benefits don’t need to be registered When he became an MP, Mr Farage DID register a £9,253 trip to Belgium in April 2024 donated by Cottrell, and later added a £15,276 donation from Cottrell for a US domestic flight in Dec 2024 A spokesman for Mr Farage said: ‘It comes as no surprise that the Sunday Times has chosen to publish this baseless & contrived story, covering a period of time when Nigel Farage was not even an active politician let alone an elected one, given that the newspaper backed the Labour Party at the last general election…..Contrary to the story's tone, no parliamentary rules have been broken.’