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@docrussjackson
Jun 4, 2024 • 50 tweets • 17 min read • Read on X
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#THREAD

Rumour has it, the character leading Nigel Farage away is George Cottrell, an interesting chap, who may give some insight into Farage's 'anti-elite' Reform UK team.

(Btw, I don't agree with chucking drinks over anyone).

So who is George Cottrell?
The former head of fundraising for UKIP, Cottrell was born to an aristocratic family.

His dad, a businessman & landowner from Gloucestershire, attended Gordonstoun School with Prince Andrew.

Remember: Reform UK self-identity as an 'anti-elite' party.

Cottrell's mum, The Honourable Fiona Watson, daughter of Rupert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton, is a former gf of King Charles!

I accept no-one chooses their parents, but opportunities for the privately educated like Cottrell, Tice, Farage & Habib are greater than for ordinary folk. Image
Cottrell's maternal uncle, Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh, was the Govt Chief Whip in the House of Lords & served as Treasurer of the Conservative Party, later defecting to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2011.

It's a family affair!

bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
Cottrell was raised and educated on the private island of Mustique before attending independent boarding school Malvern College (current fees around £15,000/term), from which he was expelled for illegal gambling.

SPOILER ALERT:

telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-m…
Cottrell was listed as a director in a number of businesses from a young age, both in the UK and overseas.

Starting in 2013, Cottrell assumed a number of roles at banks, including Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, and Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA). Image
Following #GE2015, Cottrell was appointed deputy treasurer of UKIP. While head of fundraising for UKIP, Cottrell became the chief of staff to then UKIP leader, Farage.

When Farage resigned as leader of UKIP, Cottrell continued to run his private office.

thedailybeast.com/meet-posh-geor…
On 22 July 2016, while attending the Republican National Convention with Farage, Cottrell was arrested by IRS Criminal Investigation special agents at Chicago O'Hare International. 😬

independent.co.uk/news/nigel-far…
Cottrell was federally indicted on 21 counts for conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, blackmail, & extortion.

Denied bail by a judge who branded him a "serious flight risk," he was detained in custody in Chicago.

eu.azcentral.com/story/news/loc…
Cottrell's indictment states how in 2014, he met with undercover federal agents in Las Vegas, where he conspired to launder millions of dollars worth of drug money using offshore bank accounts.

Reform UK also self-identifies as a 'law & order' Party. Image
However, following a plea agreement in December 2016, prosecutors agreed to dismiss 20 counts in return for a guilty plea to a single count of wire fraud in which Cottrell admitted to explaining various ways criminal proceeds could be laundered.

LAW & ORDER! Image
In March 2017, Cottrell was sentenced and released by Judge Diane Humetewa, having served eight months in prison. theguardian.com/politics/2017/…
Two weeks ago, rumour had it that the aristocratic banker - an ex-boyfriend of I'm A Celebrity winner Georgia Toffolo - was believed to have lost a staggering £16 MILLION in a private high-stakes poker game in Montenegro. 🤑

Reform UK: the billionaire-funded anti-elite party! Image
Nigel Farage's 'anti-elite' anti-Net Zero Reform UK Party has been bankrolled by fossil fuel oil & gas investors, aviation entrepreneurs, polluters & those who reject climate science to the tune of £2.3 MILLION since #GE2019.

desmog.com/2024/06/04/nig…
And as revealed by @DeSmog in October 2023, the hedge-fund of "anti-elite" Farage's boss - co-owner of GB "News" Paul Marshall - holds $2.2 BILLION worth of shares in fossil fuel companies. 'Anti-elite' man of the people my arse.

ALWAYS FOLLOW THE MONEY!

In 2006, Montenegro declared independence following a narrowly won referendum.

Vijesta reported in 2023 that Cottrell was accused of illegally financing the Europe Now Movement, as well as involvement with a machine for buying & selling cryptocurrencies.

en.vijesti.me/news/black-chr…
The Balkan state of Montenegro is a low-tax, low-cost euro haven that borders Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo & Serbia. It’s also an EU candidate country that offers investment returns without the regulatory restrictions of membership.

Reminder: Image
The risks of unregulated crypto are apparent in Montenegro.

In June 2023, an illegal cryptomat was discovered - the cryptocurrency ATM enabled users to convert digital currencies into cash or other cryptocurrencies.

The machine was linked to Cottrell.

riskbulletins.globalinitiative.net/see-obs-017/03…
In 2023 Vijesti reported that in January 2020 Cottrell founded the company "Private family office", & that he had crossed the Montenegro state border about fifteen times over the last few years using a passport in the name of George Co.

en.vijesti.me/news/black-chr…
A 2023 NYT article alleged Cottrell left Montenegro for London shortly after the police raided a bar that law enforcement officials believe is connected to him. It features gambling machines & a “cryptomat,” used for buying & trading digital currencies.
archive.ph/06jB9
The current Montengro PM is Milojko Spajić, who has worked as a credit analyst for Goldman Sachs, & has also been a partner of a venture capital fund in Singapore.

Spajić, a former currency trader, is accused of associating with Do Kwon.

Who is Do Kwon?

protos.com/montenegro-pm-…
Do Kwon is co-founder & CEO of Terraform Labs, the parent company of crashed stablecoin TerraUSD & cryptocurrency Luna, which collapsed in May 2022, wiping out almost $45 billion market capitalization in a week & causing hundreds of billions in losses in the crypto market. Image
In March 2023, Kwon was arrested in Montenegro, while attempting to travel to Dubai using falsified documents. Kwon has now been charged by a US federal grand jury of eight counts, including securities fraud, commodities & wire fraud, & conspiracy. thebattleground.eu/2023/06/30/now…
After his arrest, Do Kwon claimed he had enjoyed a “very successful investment relationship” with current PM Milojko Spajic, the leader of the Europe Now Movement (ENM), a major crypto sector supporter. Nebojša Medojević claimed Cottrell was one of the financiers of the ENM. Image
In another crypto development, Christopher Harborne — who goes by the name Chakrit Sakunkrit in Thailand — a Bitfinex shareholder, & arguably the number one supporter of #Brexit, is suing the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for defamation.

protos.com/christopher-ha…
Multimillionaire Harborne, who made his money from aviation fuel & a number of almost-too-brilliant crypto investments, is taking on the News Corp-owned WSJ over an article entitled ‘Crypto Companies Behind Tether Used Falsified Documents & Shell Companies to Get Bank Accounts.’ Image
The WSJ article, only recently corrected, is nearly a year old, & the lawsuit appears to be coming out of left field.

The original claims of the article seem to have largely revolved around Harborne, & Stephen Moore, who had reservations about Bitfinex’s banking arrangements. Image
Stephen Moore co-founded and served as president of the 'Club for Growth' from 1999 to 2004, is a former member of the WSJ editorial board. He worked at The Heritage Foundation from 1983 to 1987 & again since 2014. Moore advised on Trump's 2016 campaign.

The Club For Growth is a very well-funded, extremely influential, deeply concerning & frankly sinister hard-right libertarian organisation, which raised $62M in the 2020 election cycle. Its largest funders are the billionaires Jeff Yass & Richard Uihlein.

What's any of this got to do with Cottrell, Farage & Reform UK? By far the biggest single Reform donor is Harborne, who made many appearances in the #PanamaPapers. According to Electoral Commission records he's given around £10M to Brexit/Reform UK party.
In January 2023, it was revealed that Boris Johnson had reportedly received a record-breaking £1 million donation from Harborne, who made the record gift to Boris Johnson LTD, the former PM’s political office that funds his activities.

FOLLOW THE MONEY.

protos.com/boris-johnson-…
A 2019 thread by @carolecadwalla, featuring George Cottrell, includes the fact that British-Belizean political activist Andy Wigmore sent Cottrell's legal documents to the Russian embassy marked ‘For your eyes only’ with the message: ‘Have fun with this’.

Wigmore, of the campaign, is an associate of Arron Banks & Nigel Farage.

In June 2018, Banks used his appearance before the Commons media select committee to say there was "not one shred of evidence" he was involved in a conspiracy with Russian officials. Leave.EUImage
In the evidence session the Chair asked: “Did you discuss George Cottrell’s arrest with the Russian Embassy?”

Andy Wigmore replied: “It never came up. While at the time it probably seemed a big thing, there was so much else going on at the time it just was not an issue.”
Chair: “You did not share any information with them about it?”

Andy Wigmore: “We didn’t know anything, was the other thing. All we had seen was exactly what was in the press about George Cottrell. That was it.”
In February 2023, Arron Banks lost two of three challenges to his failed libel action against Carole Cadwalladr, with the judge ruling that "Cadwalladr had reasonable grounds for believing that... (Aaron) Banks shared information with Russian officials": Image
Image
As reported by The Daily Beast in February 2020, Banks’ social-media account was compromised in November 2019, and a link to download the hacked messages was posted on his Twitter account.

archive.ph/XGTNF/again#se…
The contents were not reported in the UK media after a series of threatening messages from Banks’ lawyers & his spokesman Andy Wigmore, who said he would “come after” anyone who downloaded the data. Wigmore also accused Twitter of breaching European Union data-protection rules.
The leaks suggested Banks had boasted about a backchannel to WikiLeaks after Farage’s secret meeting with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

In 2018 it was reported that Nigel Farage had 'slipped Julian Assange a data stick in secret'. news.sky.com/story/nigel-fa…
In Banks's Twitter direct messages, Banks also claimed he used close ties to Team Trump to lobby on behalf of the Belizean banking sector.

Banks discussed a plan to work with then-Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant to restore support for transactions in US dollars to Belize Bank.
The institution lost its partnerships with Bank of The America and Commerzbank after an Obama-era American crackdown on offshore tax evasion raised the costs of offering correspondent banking facilities to Belize’s biggest bank. reuters.com/investigates/s…
The Belize Bank - which is said to be owned by British-Belizean businessman, pollster, politician & Conservative Party donor Lord Ashcroft - reportedly saw the value of its deposits fall 75% in the six months after.

In 2008, The Economist ran an article on the web of loans and court cases surrounding Belize Bank (owned by Ashcroft), a private hospital company called Universal Health Services and the government of Belize. economist.com/britain/2008/0…
The Twitter leaks suggest Ashcroft had messaged Banks in November 2016 to say: “The correspondent bank for US dollars?”, with banks replying: “We have asked about corresponding banking for Belize (and it's been taken up) call Andy for an update !”
As well as being a spokesman for Banks and , Andy Wigmore was also a trade and investment envoy to Britain for Belize.

Banks, who was an honorary consul to Wales for Belize, allegedly sketched out more of the plan to Ashcroft: Leave.EUImage
Gerry Gunster is President of a US lobbying & referendum specialist firm.

In May 2016, he & Aaron Banks arranged for Isabel Oakeshott to attend the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, the one where President Obama roasted Trump.

Oakshott's other half is Richard Tice. Image
Oakshott kept a diary of the trip for ConHome.

It was later revealed that Banks, through Southern Rock, had paid Gerry Gunster, through his lobbying firm Goddard Gunster, for a “Nigel Farage Brexit Policy Luncheon”, held in May 2019

This included paying Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson £11,305 to interview Farage at the event. Later, Farage met Republican Senator Bob Corker & John Bolton, who served as Trump’s National Security Advisor.

The meetings were coordinated by Gunster.
channel4.com/news/nigel-far…
It was recently the anniversary of the Maiden speech of Joe Cox, who was murdered by a far-right terrorist.

Farage often uses dangerous far-right extremist rhetoric, & Reform UK's sloganeering is indistinguishable from that of the 1970s National Front.

Good article on George Cottrell in @BylineTimes:
bylinetimes.com/2024/06/06/who…

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More from @docrussjackson

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Feb 6
🧵

Tice amplifies this article by Allison Pearson, which is riddled with factual errors, misleading claims, selective omissions, and hyperbolic sensationalism which attempts to recast Lucy Connolly not as a bigot lawfully convicted of inciting racial hatred, but as a victim. Image
The Telegraph piece isn’t news reporting or balanced commentary - it’s propagandistic advocacy: a highly opinionated defence that relies on cherry-picked extracts from Connolly’s subject access request (SAR), filtered through anonymous barrister commentary and Pearson’s biases.
Where this narrative collides with or contradicts published court judgments, sentencing remarks, and appeal outcomes, attention-seeking propagandist Pearson predictably either downplays, distorts, or completely ignores them.

I've got 10 minutes, so here are the main problems...
Read 45 tweets
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Jan 12
🧵 Musk’s ‘Fascist Britain’ Claim Is False

@elonmusk isn’t offering his 200M followers serious political analysis: he’s amplifying repeatedly debunked far-right disinformation and presenting it as evidence that a democratic state is illegitimate. He’s dangerously out of control. Image
The claim about arrests for online comments that Musk boosted originated with anonymous far-right disinformation superspreaer account, “Basil the Great”, well known for passing off unverified rumours as fact when there is zero supporting evidence.

Musk’s latest misleading post centres on a striking but deeply misleading graphic asserting that the UK has “the highest number of arrests for online comments in the world”.

I debunked it September and will now do so again today.

Read 37 tweets
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Dec 12, 2025
🧵

Reform UK’s slick, stage-managed launch of a Christian Fellowship in St Michael’s Church is not some harmless Christmas-season publicity stunt. It is a clear and brazen step towards the Trumpification of UK politics, where religion is weaponised as a tool for cultural warfare and political mobilisation.

This is not organic Christian revival. It’s strategic political engineering.

Behind this development sit figures who have spent years trying to inject a US-style fusion of right-wing politics and religious identity into British political culture:

• Paul Marshall

A billionaire media financier with a clear ideological project: to build a hard-right cultural and religious counter-establishment. Through GB “News”, The |Spectator and UnHerd and other platforms he has amplified narratives about “woke attacks” on tradition, identity, and Christianity. The Islamophobic tweets he liked are disgusting. His network provides the media oxygen for precisely the kind of politicised Christianity on display at the Reform launch.

• James Orr

A Cambridge academic and prominent Anglican conservative intellectual, closely connected to the “post-liberal” movement and hard-right US conservative and Hungarian organisations. Orr openly promotes the idea of restoring Britain’s “Christian identity” through politics — a framing that sits uncomfortably close to the Christian-nationalist rhetoric of the US right. His advisory role to senior Reform figures is a clear sign of the ideological hardening underway.

• Danny Kruger

Long known for advocating a more “muscular” Christian politics, Kruger has repeatedly argued that the UK should explicitly root its laws and social policy in “Judeo-Christian values” - a dog whistle I explain in the next tweet.

This is the British echo of US culture-war evangelicalism: turning religion into a political badge, not a spiritual or moral tradition. His involvement in shaping Reform’s policy direction cements the party’s shift toward faith-infused populism.

• Calvin Robinson

Though no longer in the Church of England, disgraced former GBN presenter and political extremist Robinson remains one of the most prominent voices pushing an aggressive “anti-woke, anti-liberal” form of Christianity in the media — including endorsing narratives that paint inclusive or progressive churches as heretical. His alignment with Reform’s messaging shows how the party is deliberately courting polemical, grievance-driven Christian activism.

Together, these figures represent a new coalition: a British attempt to import the US religious-right model, with all its corrosive social consequences.

Using St Michael’s Cornhill — a church rooted in the conservative evangelical network — as the backdrop for this political spectacle is shocking in a UK context.

This is not merely a “religious event attended by politicians.” It was a political rally held in a church, wrapped in Anglican aesthetics.

The Church of England has historically avoided such political entanglement precisely because it knows how dangerous it is to let a religious institution become a vessel for partisan identity politics.

Britain is not America — but Reform UK wants to change that

What we are seeing is the deliberate construction of a political identity rooted in far-right themes lurching toward a contemporary form of Christofascism:

grievance Christianity
nostalgia for a mythic “Christian Britain”
hostility to minorities and multiculturalism
anti-LGBTQ+ theology rebranded as “family values”
anti-immigrant populism framed as moral duty
and a narrative of cultural siege identical to the US evangelical right

It is the Trump playbook, translated into British idiom.

This is disturbing, because once a political movement fuses religious identity with national identity, democratic debate changes: Opponents are no longer wrong — they are heretical. Policies are no longer argued — they are sanctified. Compromise becomes betrayal. And politics becomes a zero-sum culture war.

Britain has largely avoided this polarising poison. Reform UK is now trying to inject it directly into the bloodstream of national politics.

Reform UK’s “Christian Fellowship” is not about faith. It is the public unveiling of a British Christian-nationalist project — backed by wealthy ideologues, amplified by culture-war media, and borrowing heavily from the most divisive elements of the US right.

It is a serious warning sign of where Reform UK intends to take the country: toward a politics defined by religious grievance, cultural division, and the erosion of the pluralistic norms that have protected Britain from the worst excesses of American political extremism.
Concerning Paul Marshall:
Concerning James Orr:
Read 10 tweets
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Dec 9, 2025
🧵

How have populist UK politicians and Britain’s right-wing press and broadcasters got away with repeating — day after day, year after year — the brazenly false and wildly misleading claim that we live in a “high-welfare, high-tax” country? Image
Why the “High-Welfare, High-Tax” Myth Persists.

The claim that Britain is a “high-welfare, high-tax” country is a shameless lie—brazenly false—as OECD and OBR data consistently show: the UK's tax take is ~36% of GDP (mid-table globally, and well under the EU average of 40.5%). Image
The UK's total tax take of 36% is far under France's 45% or Denmark's 46%. Welfare benefits spending (including state pensions) is a modest ~11% of GDP—among the lowest in the OECD, well below the EU average of 17.5%, and just under half that of France (20.5%) and Italy (20%). Image
Read 31 tweets
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Dec 8, 2025
🧵

Not only has Nigel Farage shamelessly normalized far right discourse, but Reform UK have welcomed a new generation of young, radicalised, Andrew Tate fanboys who think it's acceptable to spread divisive bigoted lies and disinformation, and to make crass bigoted 'jokes'. Image
Joseph Boam is a radicalised 22-year-old Tate fanboy who started out as a Tory, running as a district councillor, then switching to Reform UK in 2024 and becoming a councillor in May 2025 representing the Whitwick division on Leicestershire County Council for the Reform UK party. Image
A former KFC worker, who has worked with his dad on sheds and property renovation, despite his total lack of any relevant experience or knowledge of the area, he was appointed Council deputy leader and cabinet member for adult social care—which ispatently absurd. Image
Read 14 tweets
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Dec 5, 2025
🧵

‘The Psychology of the New Far Right: Privilege, Fear, and Media Power in the Rise of Authoritarianism.’

Fear, belonging, and power are being manipulated into a frightening new age of populist outrage and algorithmic media, argues Dr Russell Jackson.

bylinesupplement.com/p/the-psycholo…
I've reproduced the article in 🧵 form, below, because its a subscriber only article from @BylineTimes.

You can subscribe here, and I would encourage you to - Bylines tells the stories and undertakes investigations many national news media fear to.

subscribe.bylinetimes.com
Across the West, figures such as Trump, JD Vance, Farage, Johnson, Tice, Kruger, and Lowe helped normalise far-right populist rhetoric within mainstream politics. Their appeal is anti-elite—yet they themselves embody the privilege they claim to challenge.

populismstudies.org
Read 91 tweets

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