The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has been jailed for more than ten years after taking cash for making pro-Russian statements.
Nathan Gill was sentenced at the Old Bailey today for 10-and-a-half years for his remarks in the European Parliament.
He pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery on dates between December 6, 2018, and July 18, 2019.
The charges related to pro-Russian statements the ex-Ukip MEP made about Ukraine in the European Parliament and in the media for his paymaster Oleg Voloshyn, then a Ukrainian MP.
The court also heard he tried to embroil four fellow Brexiteers in a pro-Russian bribery plot in the European Parliament, police have said.
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Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: ‘This is where we get into that slightly odd situation where it feels very much like a real effort to undermine democracy here.’
In her sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the harm he had inflicted was ‘profound’.
She said: ‘You abused a position of significant authority and trust with your crimes spanning eight months, motivated by financial and political gain.
‘The offending was sophisticated. You accepted payments from foreign nationals, made statements on important international matters at their behest, utilised scripted material presented as your own, and orchestrated the involvement of other MEPs.’
Armed forces minister Al Carns said after the sentencing that Vladimir Putin’s influence in British politics must be ‘weeded out’.
Carns, who was a colonel in the Royal Marines, said Gill’s actions were ‘a disgrace’, adding: ‘I just think wherever we see Russian influence in UK politics, it’s got to be weeded out.
‘I fought for this country for 24 years, all over the world, and I’ve seen my friends be injured or killed in combat.
‘To take money from an autocratic regime that is causing thousands of casualties on an unprecedented scale is unacceptable, and we must weed it out.’
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