Richard Tice, a senior politician in Reform UK, says the National Crime Agency leaked his private banking information to a newspaper. He has written to the agency asking it to investigate itself. Tice confirmed this on X, saying he believes "someone at the NCA leaked bank statements" Richard Tice on X.

The row centres on something called Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs. When a bank spots a transaction that looks suspicious — perhaps money laundering — it files a confidential report with the authorities. Tice says his bank filed such a report, and that he only found out because the Guardian newspaper contacted him about it BBC. Reform UK thinks the NCA gave that information to the Guardian, though they have not shown proof.

On 7 July, the Telegraph reported that Reform UK had formally complained to the NCA about the leak Telegraph. The Express said the same day that Nigel Farage's banking details were also leaked alongside Tice's Express.

The NCA says it cannot discuss whether it received any reports about Tice. By law, such banking reports are kept secret, and revealing them is a crime. A spokesperson said that disclosing this information could break the law that is supposed to prevent money laundering BBC. Every year, nearly 900,000 suspicious reports are filed, and many government agencies see them — not just the NCA. This means many people might have had access to Tice's information.

The complaint involves money that came from George Cottrell, who is close to Nigel Farage. Tice's company received £80,000 from Cottrell in late 2024. A think tank owned by Tice also received £1 million from Cottrell's mother in June 2024, and then gave £500,000 to Reform UK that same month, according to official records Electoral Commission. The Sunday Times also reported that Cottrell helped Farage with security and social media work in the year before Farage became an MP.

Parliament has rules about what gifts MPs must declare. When an MP is newly elected, they must say what gifts or help they received in the year before their election, but only if it was for political purposes. There is an exemption if the help was purely personal. Reform UK says Farage did not need to declare Cottrell's help because it was personal, not political. No official complaint has challenged this.

Here is where things get complicated: the law that Tice says the NCA broke is the same law that says you cannot reveal these banking reports in the first place. Both sides understand this contradiction.

Tice's complaint is based on suspicion rather than proof. Without hard evidence of who leaked the information, and with the NCA unable to discuss the matter, nobody yet knows what really happened. If the Home Office decides there is a case to investigate, it will be difficult to find the source of the leak — especially since so many different government bodies have access to this type of information.