Live Roundups Editor's Desk Insights Executive Ops Weather About 🔍
Home › UK News › Reform councillors told to call donations inquiry...
UK News

Reform councillors told to call donations inquiry ‘establishment stitch-up’

The Guardian Politics Friday 24 July 2026, 16:15 UTC By Alexandra Topping Political correspondent 1 min read
Key Points

Party briefing notes say: ‘Daily routine of hit jobs and smears will not deter us from winning next general election’ Reform UK has instructed its councillors to describe a police investigation into donations from the mother of George Cottrell as an establishment stitch-up, as polling showed the party’s popularity plummeting. Internal briefing documents circulated to the party’s councillors included instructions to respond to questions about a Metropolitan police investigation into party...

Party briefing notes say: ‘Daily routine of hit jobs and smears will not deter us from winning next general election’

Reform UK has instructed its councillors to describe a police investigation into donations from the mother of George Cottrell as an establishment stitch-up, as polling showed the party’s popularity plummeting.

Internal briefing documents circulated to the party’s councillors included instructions to respond to questions about a Metropolitan police investigation into party donations with: “It is now clear that the establishment will try anything to stop us”, the Times revealed on Thursday.

Continue reading...
’ Party (ORG) George Cottrell (PERSON) Metropolitan (ORG) Times (ORG)
Originally published by The Guardian Politics Read original →

Related Stories

‘We can see the boats that supply the restaurant’s lobsters from our seats’: a culinary tour of Gower, Wales

On a coastline brimming with seafood shacks, crab sandwiches and hyperlocal flavour, our food writer is happy to be distracted from the stunning sceneryIf we take it as read that the better the view, the worse the cooking, then by rights south Wales’s Gower peninsula should be a culinary desert. The first time I visited almost 15 years ago, I was unprepared for its loveliness – back in 1956, Gower (never the Gower, as locals were quick to correct me) was the first place in the UK to be...

The Guardian UK 29m ago

What links Finding Nemo and Little Shop of Horrors? The Saturday quiz

From Carthage airport and Dante’s Purgatory to Maglia Rosa, Maillot Jaune and La Roja, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz1 Whose The Dream (The Bed) is the most expensive painting by a woman?2 Which capital city is served by Carthage airport?3 Which famous feuding families appear in Canto VI of Dante’s Purgatory?4 Lock & Co is the world’s oldest shop selling what?5 Which composer was bandmaster at the Worcester County and City Lunatic Asylum?6 At what point in a planet’s orbit is...

The Guardian UK 29m ago

Four types of thinker have been identified. Which one are you?

Investigation finds evidence of distinct groups, from big-picture thinkers to those who sweat the small stuffAn investigation into what people think about has put the spotlight on the modern mind, revealing thoughts dominated by work, the need for coffee and a strong desire to go back to bed. It also found evidence for four distinct groups of thinkers who spend more time than most either worrying about the world; mulling on household chores and finances; focusing on the mind and body; or the...

The Guardian UK 29m ago

Furious: this serial killer thriller is the most staggeringly feminist TV you’ll ever watch

The new detective series with Emmy Rossum and Quincy Tyler Bernstine chasing a female serial killer is a must-see for Killing Eve fansA male friend recently attended a Lily Allen show, and shakily described the experience to me. “I felt like a vegetarian fox at an armed chicken convention,” he said. An overwhelmingly female crowd were experiencing powerful catharsis, united in their anger at men and joy of bangers.

The Guardian UK 29m ago