Picture the scene, your close political ally is arrested for taking bribes to shill on behalf of a terrorist state, then someone you describe as “like a son” to you has to do eight months in a US prison for wire fraud, then you have to hand back £200,000 in unlawful donations.

Then the icing on the cake hits as your partner is revealed to be at the centre of an EU fraud scandal.

You would rightly be thinking that person should be allowed nowhere near the leavers of government on the grounds that they clearly lack the judgement to lead our country without surrounding themselves with people who put personal gain above the national interest.

However, for Nigel Farage astonishingly it seems to have passed by unnoticed, unchallenged and therefore seemingly without the political consequence that would finish the political careers of most political leaders.

Let’s delve into some of the characters who Farage enjoys the company of:

1. Nathan Gill

As I wrote when the news first broke, Farage’s links to Nathan Gill suggest that Farage was willing to look away when Gill was taking bribes from the state of Russia in return for undermining both our country and the brave Ukrainian people whilst an MEP.

Farage, of course denies knowing anything about Gill’s behaviour however, two statements should give cause for concern. Firstly, both Farage and Rupert Lowe who served as Members of the European Parliament with Gill have admitted that he spoke with them about Russia.

That should have set alarm bells ringing for Farage, it definitely did for Rupert Lowe who wrote about the occasion on his substack. It is worth reading for the information that it spells out in plain language how close Gill and Farage were.

2. “Posh” George Cotterall

Cotterall was convicted of wire fraud, an offence that comes with up to 20 years in prison. Due to a plea deal, he only served 8 months.

Farage and Cotterall’s relationship is fascinating, going back nearly a decade with Cotterall’s own LinkedIn indicating that he’s been working with Farage since at least 2016 and a guardian report from last year suggests that he was a familiar face on the UKIP EU Referendum Bus.

In the same Guardian article, the most notable part wasn’t the conviction itself but Farage’s comments “Firstly, I always stand by my friends,” he [Farage] said.

“Secondly, there is a thing called Christian forgiveness. If people get convicted or do something wrong, well, they have another chance in life to go on and prove themselves.”

Imagine the situation where Keir Starmer, Ed Davey or even Kemi Badenoch were allowed to get away with that little scrutiny over their close friend and it was able to be brushed off as “I always stand by my friends”.
Incidentally he was quick to pretend he wasn’t friends with Gill.

3. 200k in impermissible donations.

Then we get an opportunity to look at some fantastic reporting by the Financial Times where they reveal that Reform UK took 200k in impermissible donations. Now anyone who has been an election agent or indeed a treasurer of any political party (admittedly a niche group of people) knows that due diligence is a serious piece of work to undertake.

The number one red flag to look out for in recording donations is the source of funds, closely followed by location of funds. If someone is offering six-figure sums, the bare minimum is checking where those funds come from.

Similarly, if the address is abroad, that is deeply concerning – the fact that Reform missed these shows at best, a lack of professionalism, at worst an open willingness to skirt the rules and hope they do not get caught.

Either way, winning the award for most returned donations is a dubious honour.

4. Laure Ferrari

Next, we have Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari who has been revealed to be at the centre of a scandal surrounding the misuse of EU funds.
On the 18th October the Times was able to reveal that the Belgian anti-fraud office (OLAF) has recommended issuing judicial proceedings against Ferrari for potential misuse of funds.

This obviously brings into question the issue of how Ferrari afforded a mortgage free property in Farage’s Clacton constituency which, as the BBC helpfully reports, is already the source of significant scrutiny.

5. Christopher Harborne

Our final dodgy dealing comes in the form of Christopher Harborne who is a British aviation and crypto-investor and has been a major financial backer of Reform UK.

According to the ever brilliant Financial Times, Harborne was worried that Farage’s outfit only looked like it had one major donor so he wanted to diversify and offered to forward the gift to an associate to then donate to Reform.

Whilst Reform and the Brexit Party have maintained that all gifts and donations are made within the law – the electoral commission rules are quite different to what was nearly carried out.

The electoral commission is clear that they view onward donations as unlawful, i.e. if I donated money on behalf of someone else and that was concealed, an offence would have been committed.

Whilst I am in no way insinuating that Farage has himself taken a single bribe or indeed engaged in unlawful practices – it is unfortunately abundantly clear that those he surrounds himself with operate in a moral grey area.

This should cause us concern because Farage has a realistic chance of becoming the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and, whilst he runs Reform UK as a one man band, that is not the reality of running a country. He will require a number of Secretaries of State, policy and political advisors as well as Members of Parliament, Peers and junior ministers.

It is clear that Farage has at best, shocking personal judgement the risk of that judgement in charge of a government is concerning.

* Callum Robertson is a teacher and member of the Federal Board. He is a Watford Borough Councillor.