Labour urges Gambling Commission to investigate firms linked to Reform UK donors

The Sunday Times published an investigation into links between Reform funders and Tether.bet.

The newspaper said George Cottrell was a high-profile customer of the website, and Harborne owned a company, IFX, that processed payments on behalf of another company that took deposits and returned winnings.

Cottrell’s lawyers told the newspaper his relationship with Tether.bet “has been limited to that of a customer, in addition to which, he knows and is friends with the owner”.

The Gambling Commission has been urged to investigate claims that companies linked to Reform UK donors and allies of Nigel Farage have been operating without a licence which is illegal in the UK.

The Labour party’s chair, Bridget Phillipson, has written to the watchdog asking it to look into Tether.bet, a Montenegro-based gambling company, and Fispay, a UK company owned by Reform’s data protection officer, Mowbray Jackson.

George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster and long-term ally of Farage, is linked to Tether.bet, which issued a closure notice on its website on 12 August.