Farage ‘struck secret pact to return as Reform leader long before election’

Richard Tice and Nigel Farage during the 2024 general election campaign (Picture: Ben Stansall/AFP) Nigel Farage set up a deal with then-Reform leader Richard Tice and friend George Cottrell to stage his comeback long before the 2024 election, it has been reported. A new investigation from the Sunday Times found that Farage and convicted fraudster Cottrell had presented the deal to the party’s treasurer in mid-May, ahead of the general election in July. Farage told a podcast last month he ‘wasn’t in politics’ up until June 3 that year, when he sensationally announced he would be returning as leader during the campaign. That point has been a key plank for his insistence that he did not need to formally declare a £5 million ‘gift’ from billionaire Christopher Harborne to the parliamentary au