Ex-Reform Politician Nathan Gill Took Pro-Russian Bribes

Published: 21 November 2025 Friday. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

WhatsApp messages have revealed how Nathan Gill, a former MEP for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and later leader of Reform UK in Wales, took bribes as part of a pro-Russian influence campaign in the European Parliament.

Gill, who faces prison, was paid thousands of pounds to give TV interviews supporting a key Putin ally and to make speeches in the European Parliament between December 2018 and July 2019. The 52-year-old father-of-seven admitted eight counts of bribery and is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Prosecutors uncovered WhatsApp chats between Gill and Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian MP from a pro-Russian party. Gill was reportedly paid to host one of Putin’s most trusted associates in Ukrainian politics at the Strasbourg parliament.

Counter-terror police, who intercepted Gill before a flight to Moscow in 2021, found messages on his phone indicating he would be “fairly rewarded” for organising the event. Scotland Yard accused Gill of “peddling narratives… beneficial towards Russian interests.” Gill pleaded guilty to the charges in September.

Farage, now leader of Reform UK, said he was “stunned” by Gill’s actions. He insisted he had no knowledge of the activities and condemned them “in every possible way.”

Gill was first elected as an MEP for the now-defunct UK Independence Party in 2014, later leading UKIP in Wales, and was elected to the Welsh Parliament in 2016. He played a prominent role in the Brexit campaign in Wales and followed Farage into the Brexit Party in 2019, serving as the “head of delegation” for its MEPs.

WhatsApp messages reveal that Voloshyn helped prepare two of Gill’s parliamentary contributions in December 2018 and March 2019, highlighting the coordinated effort to promote pro-Russian narratives.

This case exposes the use of bribery and foreign influence to sway political discourse at the European level, raising questions about oversight, transparency, and the vulnerability of elected officials to foreign manipulation.