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It is “difficult” to pin down precisely who Cottrell is, Gabriel Pogrund, who led the Sunday Times team behind the investigation, tells the BBC’s Newscast.<\/p>\n
Born in Gloucester in 1993, Cottrell is the son of the Honourable Fiona Cottrell, the paper reports, an aristocrat said to have “briefly dated” then-Prince Charles, the future king. Cottrell’s grandfather, the third Baron Manton, inherited a “family soap empire”. <\/p>\n
The future Farage ally reportedly left education without A-levels after being expelled from Malvern College, an independent school in Worcestershire, due to a “gambling addiction”. He is alleged to have once walked into a bookies with tens of thousands of pounds in cash.<\/p>\n
He went on to become a “fixer-cum-financier to the ultra-rich in Mayfair”, according to the report, and his wealth now “derives from crypto”.<\/p>\n
It is not clear precisely when he became close with Farage, but at the age of 22, he was made Ukip’s head of fundraising – a reward for volunteering for Farage in a 2015 Essex by-election.<\/p>\n
The two of them quickly became “very close”, says Pogrund. “George is seen as the Farage whisperer. He knows when Nigel needs a cigarette, he knows when Nigel wants a beer, he knows when Nigel wants a moment’s peace.<\/p>\n
“He’s there to pull the chair from under the table when he’s about to sit down,” Pogrund said of this period. <\/p>\n
This “profound friendship” saw Cottrell at Farage’s side on the day of the Brexit referendum in June 2016.<\/p>\n