Nigel Farage is facing calls to investigate and root out links between Reform UK and Russia after one of his party’s former senior politicians was jailed for 10 years for accepting bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent. Nathan Gill, a former leader of Reform UK in Wales, admitted taking payments to make statements in favour of Russia.
Keir Starmer said Farage had questions to answer about how this happened in his party. The sentencing came at the end of a damaging week for Farage in which the Guardian revealed accusations that he engaged in racist chants and comments while at school more than 40 years ago, which he denies.
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.
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. A sentencing note from the Crown Prosecution Service 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.
Farage said Gill was a single “bad apple” after Gill pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery. On the day of the sentencing, Reform UK said Gill’s actions were “reprehensible, treasonous and unforgivable” and the party was “glad that justice has been served”.
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. Starmer told the BBC: “I think it begs a very important question, because this is a long prison sentence for pro-Russian bribes, and I think that that demands that Nigel Farage investigate how that happened within his party, and, equally importantly, what other links there are between his party and Russia.”
