Known as “Posh George”, Cottrell was a volunteer for Farage in 2016 before his arrest in the US on money-laundering charges and ultimate guilty plea to one count of wire fraud in a case unrelated to his work at Ukip, Farage’s party at the time.
The Reform leader has also since been criticised by Musk, who questioned whether he was the right person to lead the UK party, after a disagreement about Farage’s decision to distance Reform from the far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Farage had been at the New York Young Republicans Club before flying to Florida, and he met Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on 16 December, subsequently releasing a statement saying: “We had a great meeting with Elon Musk for an hour yesterday.
The Reform leader accepted the flight for his visit in December last year, when he was pictured smiling with Musk and the Reform party treasurer, Nick Candy.
Cottrell, who served eight months for fraud, paid £15,000 for Reform party leader’s flight to US in December.
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