Mrs Papendick

Bonafide historian! Retired history teacher. Now specialising in Georgian and Regency wear.

[Mrs Papendick @MrsPapendick]

@JolyonMaugham As Marcus Rashford said in his @c4news interview yesterday: “I don’t know anything about politics.

“In life there’s the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do and for me, it’s as simple as that...

[Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola @Frances_Coppola]

Accepting a peerage shows a nasty contempt for democracy, no?

[YouGov @YouGov]

Reform UK and Nigel Farage are the only party and current party leaders that a majority of Britons (52-56%) describe as "very sleazy", relative to 44% saying so of the last Conservative government and 31% saying so of the current Labour government and Keir Starmer

https://t.co/xiEsaTPQVN

[Fr Paul @revpaulwhite]

Just think: if the USA had banned guns after ‘one murder’ in Columbine how many other ‘one murders’ might have been avoided.

[The Receipts UK ♿ @david_hollas]

Update: The Met is now investigating Reform UK itself, and two people have been interviewed under caution.

Everything reported on Reform's finances this week has involved agencies assessing, referring or reviewing money. This is different. Gabriel Pogrund is reporting that the Metropolitan Police is conducting a criminal investigation into at least £500,000 in donations from George Cottrell's mother, Fiona Cottrell, to Reform UK before the last election, and that two people have been interviewed under caution over allegedly "disguising" the source of the funds or making false statements about them. That's not a review. That's the formal step police take once they've identified potential suspects in a criminal offence.

Fiona Cottrell has already surfaced repeatedly in reporting on Reform's finances. The Sunday Times found she'd become one of the party's largest individual donors, giving £750,000 to Reform UK directly, despite describing herself in 2023 legal documents as a "retired stylist." Separately, she gave £1 million in June 2024 to Britain Means Business, Richard Tice's think tank, which then passed £500,000 to Reform UK that same month. The Met's new investigation, into "at least £500,000... before last election," lines up closely with that same transfer.

The specific allegation matters. Interviewing people about "disguising" a donation's source or making false statements about it points toward offences under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, the law that governs routing money through an intermediary to obscure where it actually came from. A think tank sitting between a donor and a party is exactly the kind of structure that provision exists to catch if used that way.

This is now the fourth separate law enforcement thread running across Reform's senior figures simultaneously: the NCA on Christopher Harborne's £5m gift to Farage personally, the NCA on Tice's £80,000 loan from Cottrell, the Met on Robert Jenrick's foreign-sourced leadership campaign donation, and now the Met on the party's own donation intake, with actual named or nameable individuals being questioned as suspects.

The distinction is worth being precise about. Everything else this week has been about individuals' personal finances. This is about how money entered Reform UK as a political party, under active criminal investigation, with people already being interviewed under caution rather than simply having their transactions flagged.

[Mrs Papendick @MrsPapendick]

@arthistorynews @FraserNelson 👏👏👏

[Cockney Campaign @cockneycampaign]

@brexit_sham Woah. So Tice has known the Cottrell family for 50 years. So that's 1976, when he was 12. And Sunley family co, who had supported the #EconomicLeague, were building in Dubai.
Uncle John also #1001Club.
Fermor-Hesketh in Tice's #BfS
💰Eurosceptic dynasties aren't #Establishment?🎩

[Mrs Papendick @MrsPapendick]

@withnailjones @HeatherJLpals @Anniepop2027 @andyburnham @LucyMPowell @UKLabour This says it all about Find Out Now Reforms tame pollster👇

[Jack Roworth @RoworthJack]

EXC: I asked Robert Jenrick about Idan Ofer, the second wealthiest man in Israel, who has financially supported him and also provides infrastructure for the IDF.

I’m in the process of identifying the member of his team who pushed me. I believe they were not part of his security.

[Don McGowan @donmcgowan]

@nw_nicholas @OneFinanceGuy @chris_spencer04 @Gabriel_Pogrund https://t.co/Y40g6uwCD1

[The Finance Guy @OneFinanceGuy]

It's really, really f... up.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Harborne’s gift of £5m to Farage wasn’t his first act of generosity.

He also gave £1m to Johnson *after* he left office. What for, you ask? Neither are saying.

But in contrast to the flights, he did declare this.

2 months later he flew on Harborne’s jet to Ukraine
4/

[💙 Sophie Socket ♠️ @Socket1Sophie]

Reform want you to believe they’re inevitable.
They’re not. 🛑

Nine of the twelve elections from yesterday have now declared. Reform lost eight of them. 🫠

Their vote was down everywhere they’d previously stood. 📉

Tactical. Voting. For. The. Win. 🏆

[The Finance Guy @OneFinanceGuy]

Mr @TiceRichard you are involved with money launderers and have been engaged in sophisticated money flows with them. Pipe down, log off, before you get yourself into (more) trouble.

[mcgrammar @mcgrammar6]

@LozzaFox

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

Please vote and share this Daily Mail poll, which is not exactly going to plan...
https://t.co/tN4JsmP04c

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

Two weeks before he took to the stage in Clacton, we installed a remote-controlled banner behind Farage. (June 2024)

[Mrs Papendick @MrsPapendick]

And we have today's best tweet winner!👇

[Thelma Walker @Thelma_DWalker]

“I found out today that there is a little village about six miles inland from Clacton-On-Sea called ‘Weeley’ and if this isn’t the perfect location for the campaign office of @countbinface then I don’t know what is.”
(Borrowed from
miketherelic on Threads)

[Thelma Walker @Thelma_DWalker]

“I found out today that there is a little village about six miles inland from Clacton-On-Sea called ‘Weeley’ and if this isn’t the perfect location for the campaign office of @countbinface then I don’t know what is.”
(Borrowed from
miketherelic on Threads)