Introducing | Posh George: The criminal behind Farage

Summary

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The Story – "Introducing | Posh George: The criminal behind Farage"

Podcast: The Story, by The Times and The Sunday Times
Host: Gabriel Pogrand (Insight team), with Manveen Rana and Luke Jones
Date: July 6, 2026
Episode: Posh George, the Criminal Behind Farage, Episode 1: "Meet George"

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Episode Overview

The episode launches an investigative series into George Cottrell — known as "Posh George" — and his extraordinary rise from convicted fraudster to the inner circle of Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage. Reported by Gabriel Pogrand and the Sunday Times Insight team, the episode explores Cottrell’s privileged upbringing, tumultuous adolescence, rapid immersion in high-stakes finance and political influence, and long-standing, enigmatic role at the heart of Farage’s political operation. The narrative raises vital questions of power, influence, judgment, and the porous boundaries between British establishment, criminal underworld, and populist politics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Farage–Trump Connection and the Arrest of Posh George

• [02:18] Scene set at the 2016 Republican National Convention, with Farage basking in the afterglow of Brexit.
• [02:35] Pogrand recounts how Farage, fresh from Cleveland, appears almost swept up in an FBI operation:

  “As [Farage] steps off the plane, there are federal agents waiting with handcuffs…until they step forward to arrest a member of his entourage…22-year-old George Swinfin Cottrell. But to those who know him, he’s just Posh George.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 03:03)

• This arrest made headlines, yet a decade later, Posh George is still at Farage's elbow, influencing British politics at a crucial moment.

2. Cottrell’s Shadowy Role Within Reform UK

• [06:18] In Reform UK's 2024 local election “spin room,” George is present, pulling Farage’s chair, fetching drinks, orchestrating logistics, and possibly much more. Yet, his official status remains ambiguous:

  “Posh George, they said, was just around…there to pull Farage’s chair back as he sits down, there to flick his lighter or fetch him a pint in the room when history is made. And it goes deeper than that. Farage depends on George for, well, everything from the cigarettes he smokes to the planes he flies to the videos he posts.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 07:19)

• The Insight team pivots from the accepted political rumors ("old news") to a hard look at influence, money, disclosure, and secrecy.

3. Origins: Aristocratic Family, Outsider Upbringing

• [09:55] George Cottrell’s background is mapped:
  • Born in privilege (grandson of the third Baron Manton).
  • Mother: Fiona, "heiress turned Penthouse model," famous for her rebelliousness and association with British royalty, and notorious boyfriends.
  • Parents listed on his birth certificate as "of independent means."

  “This was the world George Cottrell was born into. Of land, of inherited money, out of question marks, you see. In many ways, Posh George is part of a generational story of people who are part of the establishment, but also, weirdly, outside of it.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 11:32)

• Childhood included elite schools, a stint on Mustique, then Malvern College — where stories of gambling and association with “flashy international money” emerged.

4. Early Signs of Transgression: Expulsion and Financial Education

• [13:10] At ~16, Cottrell is expelled from Malvern College, reportedly for gambling involving Krugerrand gold coins.
• He skips university, heading into the “real education” of Mayfair high society and underworld finance, learning from “fixer for Russian oligarchs,” Scott Young.

  “Posh George swatted up. He became literate in international finance, private banking and offshore structures, apparently spending time with…the man called Scott Young.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 14:46)

• This period is described as formative but shrouded in secrets — a period Cottrell “refuses to talk about.”

5. The Enigmatic Link to Farage and the Political Rise

• [21:20] Investigative team puzzles over Cottrell’s entrée to Farage:
  • Cottrell joins UKIP at 16/17 (2010), but meets Farage in 2014, apparently through his uncle, Lord Hesketh, an aristocrat and early UKIP defector:

    “One of the clearest and simplest explanations in my opinion is just that he was introduced through his aristocratic uncle, Lord Hesketh.”
    (Investigator, 21:51)

• By 2015, Cottrell is already trusted within UKIP and, at 22, made deputy treasurer ("remarkable…might point to the fact it was a family connection").
• Posh George’s arc is painted as improbable:

  “It might sound surprising to hear of someone that young given that job, but UKIP at that time were an upstart, a pretty ramshackle, at times candidly unprofessional entity.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 24:22)

6. The Brexit High Stakes and the Looming Fall

• [25:04] In 2016, with Brexit on a knife edge, George is "about to make a killing.”

  “Within a few weeks he'll have won everything, lost it all and ended up behind bars.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 26:11)

• The episode closes on the cusp of scandal — hinting at Cottrell’s imminent arrest and imprisonment.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Posh George's ubiquity in Farage's circle:

  “He is just there, there to pull Farage's chair back as he sits down, there to flick his lighter or fetch him a pint…”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 07:19)

• On Cottrell’s unconventional childhood:

  “His mother, Fiona, is an aristocrat...who rebelled by becoming a model, but by posing naked for Penthouse...This posed something of a problem when she began a courtship with Prince Charles, the future king.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 10:10)

• On Cottrell’s education and expulsion:

  “Around the time of his 16th birthday, George was expelled after being involved in gambling while at school. One source told me it involved betting in Krugerrand gold bullion coins from South Africa.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 13:14)

• On the Mayfair years and underworld connections:

  “He became literate in international finance, private banking and offshore structures, apparently spending time with the man called Scott Young, a property mogul and fixer for Russian oligarchs.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 14:47)

• On the sustained mystery of the Farage–Cottrell relationship:

  “It is weird. I feel like we've spoken to a ridiculous number of people, none of whom can actually answer the question how they know each other.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 20:45)

• On UKIP and Posh George’s early prominence:

  “It might sound surprising to hear of someone that young given that job, but UKIP at that time were an upstart, a pretty ramshackle, at times candidly unprofessional entity.”
  (Narrator Gabriel Pogrand, 24:22)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:00] – Farage at the Republican National Convention; Posh George’s arrest
• [06:18] – Posh George observed at Reform HQ during the 2024 local elections
• [09:55] – Cottrell’s aristocratic roots and nontraditional upbringing
• [12:42] – School days at Malvern College and tales of gambling
• [14:46] – Mayfair financial immersion; links to Scott Young and Russian oligarchs
• [21:20] – Explorations of how Cottrell met Farage; the Lord Hesketh theory
• [24:22] – Cottrell’s rise in UKIP, made deputy treasurer at 22
• [26:11] – Hints at Cottrell's downfall: winning big, losing everything, ending up in prison

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Tone & Style

• The narration is investigative but conversational, blending journalistic detachment with dry humor and an eye for the eccentricities and absurdities of British political and aristocratic life.
• Frequent use of first-person insight and direct, dramatized description (“It is weird. I feel like we've spoken to a ridiculous number of people…”).
• Awareness of “Westminster myths” and a commitment to digging beneath them for answers.

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Summary

The introductory episode of "Posh George: The criminal behind Farage" pulls listeners into a world of privilege, power, and irregular influence. It investigates how George Cottrell, with a shadowy background in aristocracy and financial mischief, insinuated himself into British political turmoil and became indispensable to Nigel Farage. The episode lays out Cottrell's unconventional path — from scandalous family roots and expulsion from elite schools, to learning finance from figures enmeshed in Russian money, to occupying a core (if unofficial) role in Reform UK.

The episode ends in suspense, setting up for a deeper look at Cottrell’s criminal ventures and their implications for British politics in episodes to come.

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Transcript

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Hi, it's Manveen here. Today we're bringing you a special episode from one of our sister podcasts at the Times. It's a new investigative series from the Sunday Times Insight team, hosted by my colleague Gabriel Pogrand. It's a wild ride through the worlds of politics, crypto and crime, which tries to understand how a convicted fraudster has worked his way into the heart of British politics, becoming the right hand man to the reform UK leader, Nigel Farage. It's called Posh, the Criminal Behind Farage. And you can find the whole series by searching for Posh George wherever you get your podcasts or just click on the link in our show notes. But for now, enjoy. Episode one. Meet George,

[Nigel Farage]

Friends, delegates and fellow Americans.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

It's July 2016.

[Nigel Farage]

I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

Donald Trump is on stage at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

[Nigel Farage]

Together, we will lead our party back to the White House.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

And listening in the crowd is a friend, Nigel Farage.

[Nigel Farage]

And we will make America great again.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

The great disruptor of British politics. Like Trump, he's riding high. Farage has just pulled off the great coup of his career, playing a pivotal, he would say the decisive role in the greatest upset in recent political history, Brexit.

[Nigel Farage]

Let June 23 go down in our history as our Independence Day.

[DJ or Party Announcer]

And look who just joined us.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

The British politician Nigel Farage, the guy

[DJ or Party Announcer]

who is credited with having the UK exit the eu.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

The American TV networks all want a piece of Farage.

[Nigel Farage]

One of the things that happened was that London, a professional political class living in London, had lost touch.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

The next day, Farage leaves Cleveland and gets a flight to Chicago on his way back to the uk. But as he steps off the plane, there are federal agents waiting with handcuffs. For a moment, it looks like they're there for Farage himself. Until they step forward to arrest a member of his entourage. Someone who just 24 hours earlier was strolling around Cleveland with him without a care in the world. The man with blond slick back hair and a clean shaven, chubby face is 22 year old George Swinfurn Cottrell. But to those who know him, he's just Posh George. A decade on from that arrest and time in a US prison, Posh George is still the right hand man, the most indispensable of all advisors to Nigel Farage, the man desperate to hold the keys to number 10. I'm Gabriel Pogrand. I run the Insight Investigations team at the Sunday Times. And together with my colleagues Venetia Mingus and Manu Modelo, we spent the last few months trying to understand how a convicted fraudster with no official role in Reform UK has worked his way into the heart of British politics. Standing by the man who could win the next election. From the times and Sunday times, this is posh george, the criminal behind farage. Episode 1 meet george. So, before I became editor of Insight, the investigative unit here at the Sunday Times, I spent about a decade in and around Westminster as a political reporter. And it's funny, on reflection, the friendship between Farage and George Cottrell. Posh George was one of those things I suppose Westminster just knew about. I think it was deemed to be old news, so self evident it didn't need to be said out loud. Farage was also someone who reveled in his status as a rule breaker. One of the bad boys of Brexit. So maybe people assumed it was priced in. He had this friend 30 years younger than him, with a checkered past. Who cares? In the Insight team, we didn't see it that way.

[Nigel Farage]

Hello, good morning. It is 8 o'.

[Investigator or Reporter]

Clock.

[PwC Representative]

The headlines you're waking up to.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

It has been so far a successful night for Reform UK.

[Investigator or Reporter]

The party's gained more than 350 seats

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

in the first result in May this year, Reform made massive gains in the local elections. I remember when my phone started buzzing, it was a WhatsApp, he's here. Posh George is literally in the Reform Spin Room, the packed space within party headquarters where MPs, officials and journalists would gather to watch the results and analyze what they really meant. I asked the person, well, why? For years, any time I'd asked anyone in Reform, or before that, the Brexit Party, anything about Posh George, they told me he had no official party role. That was that. But now Farage and Cottrell were side by side in Reform HQ on a night of historic importance. 1200 or so seats counted out of the 5000 or so, and there's a clear winner.

[Nigel Farage]

Here they are, it's Reform uk.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

Then my contact said something interesting, something people have said a lot about Farage and postgeorge. Posh George, they said, was just around. I guess he was. He is just there, there to pull Farage's chair back as he sits down there, to flick his lighter or fetch him a pint in the room. When history is made and it goes deeper than that, Farage depends on George for, well, everything from the cigarettes he smokes to the planes he flies to the videos he posts.

[Nigel Farage]

It's a normal reform evening. I'm DJing tonight and it's, yes, Nigel Farage's Brexit Club Classics to, yes, the

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

money that has ultimately supported his life and operation. Much of this has never been disclosed to the public. In fact, let me correct that, most of it hasn't. And this story, the journey we've been on, is about far more than rules and regulations of Westminster. It's about friendship and the loneliness of leadership and, yes, judgment, because, well, away from Parliament, there's another world of criminals, crypto of gambling and which, through his relationship with Posh George Farage is far closer to than one might think. So how does a criminal become the guy for Nigel Farage? George Cottrell was born In Gloucester on 13 October 1993, a small cathedral city surrounded by the west of England's rolling countryside. At the time, John Major was Prime Minister. If we can open Europe to all those nations right the way across Europe, the Cold War had ended. Take that, top the charts. And in November that year, the Maastricht Treaty came into force. The Governments of the 12 reassembled here 2 months after the haggling of a summit which finally produced the treaty now ready for signature, creating the modern European Union. Yeah. Posh George didn't grow up in a political family, nor by any stretch a normal one. His mother, Fiona, is an aristocrat, the daughter of the third Baron Manton, a British soldier, landlord and racecourse owner. The Young heiress grew up at the family's 8,000 acre seat in Houghton Hall, Yorkshire, and in her early 20s rebelled not just by becoming a model, but by posing naked for Penthouse, the men's magazine, which crowned her pet of the month. This posed something of a problem when she began a courtship with Prince Charles, the future king. The royals killed the match and gossip column said she'd become estranged from her family for a time. There were some other unusual boyfriends. One was a writer arrested and convicted of heroin smuggling. Another was a wealthy bobsledder and boat enthusiast two years her junior, whose name was Mark Swinfin Cottrell. Cottrell Sr. Used to fly George's mother, Fiona, around his hometown of Gloucester. By helic was, he said, the best way of beating the traffic. The pair quickly became engaged more than a decade later. On George's birth certificate, his parents both completed the box marked occupation with the same answer. It read of independent means. This was the world George Cottrell was born into. Of land of inherited money, out of question marks, you see. In many ways, Posh George is part of a generational story of people who are part of the establishment, but also, weirdly, outside of it. At a tender age, it seems the family up sticks and moved George and his older sister to Mustique, a microscopic private island in the Caribbean beloved of billionaires and royalty. Quite why and what George's parents actually did there is hard to pin down. But according to his own since deleted cv, Posh George spent time at a local primary school before being sent home first to the Elm School in Hertfordshire, which offers boarding to children from the age of seven. And then

[DJ or Party Announcer]

here.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

So I've just parked the car and just turning the corner now, and right in front of me actually, is this most stunning school. It's almost like a cathedral, Hogwarts in an Oxford college rolled into one. And this is Malvern College. And it's a place which over the generations has produced some pretty remarkable alumni, prime ministers, Nobel laureates, chronicles of Narnia, C.S. lewis and Post George. I've just stopped by one of the entrances. Malvern College is side of my left. There's a little building in the background with these amazing turrets and gargoyles. Got a bird perched on top of one of the spires. So this is where P. George was at school during his teenage years. And by all accounts, it's the place where he made quite the name for himself. Pos George's fellow students remember him again with the impression of having a lot of money. There are stories of him sitting at the back of the class leafing through the financial times. Curiously, he was more comfortable not in the company of English aristocrats, the school's traditional demographic of which he was part, but the newer, flashier international money. Two Nigerian boarders were among his closest friends. Until, that is, George left under a very dark cloud around the time of his 16th birthday, George was expelled after being involved in gambling while at school. One source told me it involved betting in Krugerrand gold bullion coins from South Africa. It was the end of his journey through the educational establishment. He was a teenager with no hope of university at a very sudden crossroads. So what did he do? Well, posh George spent the next few years, as far as we can figure out, getting his real education. After briefly toying with the idea of joining the army, he headed to Mayfair in the heart of clubland, where English, Arab and Russian money mingles in private members clubs and hotel lobbies. Posh George swatted up. He became literate in international finance, private banking and offshore structures, apparently spending time with the man called Scott Young, a property mogul and fixer for Russian oligarchs.

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[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

Now, my colleague Manu is in central London. He just got off the tube at Green Green Park Station and is walking down Piccadilly on the opposite side to the Ritz. Before joining the Insight Investigations team, Manny spent half a decade covering property. So if you're trying to pin an asset to a person, he's your man.

[Alexander Hesketh]

So I just arrived at this street in Mayfair. It's off the beaten track, but it's actually quite busy. There's some workers, lots of cars, especially like, you know, nice cars. There's a Porsche, there's a massive Bentley. I'm actually looking at a four story Georgian facade, quite imposing and looking slightly sinister. The shutters are closed. It doesn't. Doesn't look like anything is going on beyond the curtains. And the address might not mean anything to you right now. Now it's 44 Hartford Street. But it's here that Scott Young, the super fixer to the Russian oligarchs, had its offices.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

And we understand Post George worked here too. Almost 10 years ago, a website appeared detailing George's life. It had no named author, which I must say, normally in journalism is a no for me. I obviously want to talk to people and verify things and get a feel for who they are before investigating their claims. But this website, beyond George's, now deleted LinkedIn, is literally the only piece of information that exists purporting to provide any account of Posh George's early career. And it's detailed, it contains dates and documents, some of which we've independently verified. And it has this nugget that postgeorge shared a building with the fixer for Russian oligarchs, Scott Young. When I put this to someone who knows George well, they stopped. They said this was the one part of his career, his whole life, which George Cottrell refuses to talk about. And this source said they understood George and Young had worked alongside each other. On the website, it says Scott Young took Posh George under his wing, giving him space on the same floor as his office, one you could only get to by the way, by passing metal detectors on the ground floor. They work separately, but also together, it says Scott bringing PostGeorge into a connecting boardroom where cigarette smoke lingered and deals were made. George Cottrell disputes that he worked with Scott Young at this address. Not long after Young was jailed for contempt of court. During divorce proceedings, he hid money from his wife in Monaco, the British Virgin Islands, in Russia. The judge has awarded you £20 million.

[Podcast Host Manveen]

Ah, yeah, but can I just stop you there? It's called Fraud and Misrepresentation.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

You're listening to audio of Scott Young on the phone with his then wife, which was broadcast in a BBC documentary in 2018.

[Podcast Host Manveen]

Where would this money be magicked from?

[Nigel Farage]

I will get cracking on a couple of ventures.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

During his time learning the ropes in the financial world, in George's words, he worked for private banks, investment managers and high net worth individuals. So when does he meet Nigel Farage? Man, he's saying something. Just say something to you. I'm in the inside office with my colleagues on this investigation, Phoenicia Mingus and Manu Medelo. It is weird. I feel like we've spoken to a ridiculous number of people, none of whom can actually answer the question how they know each other. What do we actually think at the moment?

[Investigator or Reporter]

Well, we've spoken to many sources and we know that George joined UKIP in 2010, which is the year he was expelled from school, and he must have been 16 or 17. But posh George didn't meet Nigel Farage until 2014, when he was 21. And how exactly they were first introduced, we're not sure. But one of the clearest and simplest explanations in my opinion is just that he was introduced through his aristocratic uncle, Lord Hesketh.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

Ah, Lord Hesketh. We haven't mentioned him yet, but he's George's uncle through marriage. In the 70s, he launched his own F1 team with his own money and even raced himself.

[Alexander Hesketh]

My name is Alexander Hesketh and I'm

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

the sponsor and constructor of the Hesketh

[Alexander Hesketh]

308 Grand Prix car.

[Investigator or Reporter]

He was a former Tory and he defected to UKIP around the same time. So that seems like a clear cut way he could have got into Nigel's circle.

[Nigel Farage]

I have today with me our latest recruit, Lord Hesketh. You may have seen the coverage in Medallion Mail earlier this week. Lord H, welcome on board.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

What made you decide to join ukip?

[Alexander Hesketh]

Well, I think Nigel, very simple.

[Investigator or Reporter]

And that's actually what Aaron Banks, the insurance millionaire and former UKIP donor, says in his book. You know, his account of that whole time, he seems to infer that that's how Posh George came to know Nigel Farage. It was all through his uncle, which

[Alexander Hesketh]

tallies with what we found, which is basically that by 2015 they were good friends.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

I think that's the most. That is the most efficient theory. And I guess they just seem to inhabit similar social worlds. Like, do you remember we found a copy of George Cottrell's deleted LinkedIn?

[Investigator or Reporter]

Yeah.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

In that there's some reference, there's references to lots of companies he's worked for. Some of them we think he probably never hung his hat at. But there was one Maxim, corporate Finance, that was run by Murtash's army, who many years later was the treasurer of reform. So I guess in that world of Westminster, Mayfair, there just seems to be a fair amount of overlap. And I do wonder, life being messy, whether it's less straightforward than them having had one moment where they looked into each other's eyes. They might have just kind of entered each other's orbit in that kind of pre Brexit moment.

[Alexander Hesketh]

We don't really know, do we?

[Investigator or Reporter]

I mean, but what we do know is that by the beginning of 2015, Posh George had been dispatched to Canvey island in Essex to support this Ukip MP candidate, Jamie Huntman.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

Kind of remarkable how early on he had the trust of UKIP hierarchy, which might point to the fact that it was a family connection. What do you actually feel is the likeliest?

[Alexander Hesketh]

I think the uncle connection is possibly the most straightforward. Just like Venetia was saying, uncle introduces him to this circle. But the truth is we may never know. Right.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

But we do know that by late 2015, just after David Cameron had called the EU referendum, Farage and Cotrel do know each other, Age of 22, George was appointed the deputy treasurer of the UK Independence Party, or Ukip. It might sound surprising to hear of someone that young given that job, but UKIP at that time were an upstart, a pretty ramshackle, at times candidly unprofessional entity. It was an anti immigration party with one clear aim.

[Nigel Farage]

We want a trade deal with Europe. We want to be good neighbors with our European friends. But we desperately seek a referendum so that we can set this country free from political union and its leader.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

Well, I think we know by now

[Nigel Farage]

we want our country back.

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

Yep. Nigel Farage. In 2016, Farage and Posh George were fully committed to the Brexit campaign. Mainstream politicians from around the world were warning it could be a disaster. We're very supportive of Britain remaining a central member of the European Union. We'll reiterate that again this evening. It's not fear I wish to promote, but truth the economic development between our two countries.

[Nigel Farage]

Our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European European Union, to get a trade agreement done. And UK is going to be in the back of the kiln on the

[Narrator Gabriel Pogrand]

night of the vote itself. It seems to be on a knife edge. Posh George isn't concentrating on the results alone because he thinks he's about to make a killing. Within a few weeks he'll have won everything, lost it all and ended up behind bars. While making this podcast series, we approached both George Cottrell and Nigel Farage. George Cottrell says his support of Mr. Farage is the result of friendship and shared political ideology, not any hope or expectation of receiving anything in return. Nigel far Farage described Mr. Cottrell as a long standing friend. Both deny any wrongdoing. You've been listening to Posh George, the criminal behind Farage, with me, Gabriel Pogrand, along with Venetia Mingus and Manu Medeado. The series is produced and exact by Will Row and Kate Lambeau. The assistant producer is Colette Fountain. Sound design by Tiffany Dimmack Theme title and original music by Adam Foran and the head of podcasts at the Times is Dan Botts.

[Podcast Host Manveen]

That was the first episode of the brand new series from the Sunday Times Insight Team. You can listen to the next episode by searching for poshgeorge wherever you get your podcasts. We've also put a link to the series in our show notes. This episode of the story is sponsored by PwC.

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