Hard-right UK politician jailed for taking bribes to make pro-Russia statements

Nathan Gill, a former ally of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, is believed to have pocketed at least US$53,000 in bribes

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Reform UK’s former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, arrives for a sentencing hearing on Friday. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:45pm, 21 Nov 2025

A hard-right British politician and former ally of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was sentenced Friday to 10½ years in prison for accepting bribes to make favourable statements about Russia in the European Parliament.

Nathan Gill, 52, pleaded guilty earlier this year to eight counts of bribery between December 2018 and July 2019. Police have estimated that the former leader of Reform in Wales took at least £40,000 (US$53,000) in bribes.

Prosecutors said Gill, a member of the European Union legislature until the UK’s departure from the bloc in early 2020, was tasked by the former pro-Russia Ukrainian politician Oleg Voloshyn to make pro-Russian statements about events in Ukraine in the European Parliament and in opinion pieces to news outlets such as 112 Ukraine.

Nathan Gill (left) and Nigel Farage (right) attend a European Parliament election campaign rally in Cardiff Bay, south Wales, on May 15, 2019. Photo: AFP

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, having annexed parts of the country, including the Crimea peninsula, eight years earlier.

Sentencing him at London’s Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Gill had allowed money to “corrupt his moral compass” when it had been his duty as an elected official to “speak with honesty and conviction”.

“When you say what someone has paid you to say, you are not speaking with sincerity,” the judge said.

Gill was stopped at Manchester Airport in September 2021 as he attempted to travel to Russia, and was charged in February of this year following an investigation.

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Hard-right UK politician jailed for taking bribes to make pro-Russia statements

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Nathan Gill, a former ally of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, is believed to have pocketed at least US$53,000 in bribes

Nathan Gill, a former ally of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, is believed to have pocketed at least US$53,000 in bribes