Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales and MEP for
Reform’s predecessor party, UKIP, has been jailed for 10 years on the basis of him have previously accepted bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent in order to make public statements in support of Russia.
Police believe Gill received the equivalent of at least £30,000 and could have got even more from Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian MP and alleged Russian asset. The offences took place when Gill was an MEP in 2018-19, having been elected as one of the Ukip group led by Farage, and later joining the Brexit party.
He even badgers his colleagues in what are really the former incarnations of the Reform party to get involved, albeit unknowingly.
The political fallout from the case also appeared to widen on Friday as it emerged Gill had been paid to arrange for other Brexit party and former Ukip MEPs to make pro-Russia statements, without their awareness.
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A sentencing note from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) indicated that four other MEPs who had been in Ukip with Gill made interventions, after he was promised bribes from Voloshyn to arrange for them to make statements. These include Steven Woolfe, William Dartmouth, Jonathan Arnott and Jonathan Bullock.
A fifth, David Coburn, who had been in Ukip and was the party’s leader in Scotland at one point, was also mentioned in WhatsApp messages between Voloshyn and Gill.
Some of the statements appear to be attempts to boost the story that the Russian government wanted to tell the world just before their illegal and aggressive invasion on Ukraine
The statements by Gill in the European parliament and on 112 Ukraine, a pro-Russian TV channel, were designed to benefit the Kremlin’s narrative on Ukraine in the period before Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.
The Crown Prosecution Service highlights how serious these offences are.
He represented Wales in the European Parliament from 2014 until the UK’s departure from the EU in January 2020, took the money in exchange for tabling motions, delivering speeches, and facilitating media access for individuals linked to pro-Russian interests.
Bethan David, Head of Counter Terrorism for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This case strikes at the heart of democratic integrity. Accepting bribes from foreign nationals to influence parliamentary proceedings undermines public trust and the proper functioning of government.
Is it just Nathan Gill? We have seen previously that Nigel Farage appears to have an unhealthy weakness when it comes to Russia himself. He’s being urged to set up an investigation of his party in order to eliminate any other such potentially treasonous links between members of his party and the Russian state.
However, Labour called on Farage to “leave no stone unturned” in reviewing “every inch” of Reform UK’s party structures, membership, party donors and representatives, to ensure any remaining pro-Russian links were rooted out.
When the news originally broke, the Reform bosses Nigel Farage and Richard Tice both claimed to have nothing to do with Gill, probably never met him, don’t know who he is, etc. etc. Which is weird for someone who held an important position in their own parties.
And also totally contradicted by the discovery of photos of Nathan Gill hanging out with both of them. Farage himself had previously given him a character reference of a type, claiming in public that Gill was “honest as the day is long“.
Liars, or people with extraordinarily bad judgement? Neither of those are good attributes for people who want to run our country.
More on this from elsewhere on the web:
- Reform UK’s ex-Wales leader Nathan Gill admits pro-Russia bribery
- Nathan Gill: How WhatsApp messages revealed ex-Reform politician’s pro-Russian bribes
- Reform UK, the Russian spy and rolls of Kremlin cash: the inside story of Nathan Gill
- Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges
- ‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem
- Reform’s Russian ‘asset’ – the Kremlin shadow over Nigel Farage