The development opens up the prospect of another inquiry into a Reform UK MP by the watchdog, which was investigating Farage after the Guardian’s revelation that he received an undeclared £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Tice, who is Reform’s deputy leader, received what he described as a personal loan in late 2024, months after he was elected as the MP for Boston and Skegness, in a transaction that originally caused bankers to raise concerns with authorities.
However, the parliamentary standards commissioner has now been formally asked by Lisa Smart, a Liberal Democrat front bench MP, to investigate Tice over his apparent failure to declare the loan in line with rules governing MPs’ conduct.
It is alleged that Tice may have breached the MPs’ code of conduct for failing to declare the loan on the basis that the money appears to have been given at a preferential rate, and that Cottrell’s tax residency in Montenegro made him an “impermissible donor”.
In a letter sent this week to Daniel Greenberg, the commissioner, Smart wrote: “Mr Cottrell is not merely a private acquaintance of Mr Tice, he is an official adviser to Reform UK and Nigel Farage (demonstrated by his use of Reform UK business cards). “It is highly implausible that the loan would have been negotiated without their party political connection, given this is the central basis of their relationship.”
More murky business connections available on line in media reports.
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