Former Reform Leader, Nathan Gill, Jailed for Taking Kremlin Rubles

Do you remember March 2018? The BBC’s Newsnight chose that moment to photoshop Jeremy Corbyn in a Russian hat, placing him before a menacing red Kremlin backdrop. The crime? He had dared to question the Government’s rush to judgment over the Salisbury poisonings. He had committed the unpardonable sin of asking for evidence before endorsing a new Cold War.

The image was a disgrace, a piece of visual propaganda masquerading as journalism. Yet while the cameras focused their fury on a man whose greatest offence was advocating for peace, another drama was unfolding in Brussels. Nathan Gill, the leader of Reform UK in Wales and a Brexit Party MEP, wasn’t being photoshopped into fictional treachery. He was engaged in the real thing, accepting Russian roubles to betray his country from inside the European Parliament itself.

This week, Gill was jailed for ten and a half years. It turns out some of those “patriots” were the traitors all along.

Sold Out for Thirty Pieces of Silver

Let us be clear about what happened. This wasn’t a matter of legitimate political disagreement or even of naive fellow-travelling. Nathan Gill pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery. Between 2018 and 2019, he accepted at least £30,000 from a pro-Russian operative. In return, he delivered pre-written speeches defending Viktor Medvedchuk, a Kremlin-aligned oligarch and personal friend of Vladimir Putin. He praised television channels that had been sanctioned for spreading disinformation. He recruited unwitting colleagues to amplify Moscow’s messaging.

Thirty pieces of silver bought Judas. Thirty thousand pounds bought Nathan Gill. Not a bad inflation rate over two millennia, but the betrayal remains timeless.

The whole sordid affair only surfaced in 2021 when counter-terrorism police stopped Gill at Manchester Airport. They found the evidence: chat logs, payment records, speeches drafted not in Cardiff or London but in Moscow. Judge Simon Drew KC, sentencing him, observed that Gill’s actions had “undermined public trust in democratic institutions.” Reform UK has since called his behaviour “treasonous,” desperate to distance themselves from a scandal that strikes at the heart of their manufactured patriotism.

But the hypocrisy here is not merely Rich. It is industrial-grade.

While You Were Looking the Other Way

Ex-leader of Reform UK in Wales Nathan Gill is sentenced to 10 & a half years in jail for taking bribes as part of a pro-Russia influence campaign
⁰The judge described it as "sophisticated offending"and says the harm it inflicted is "profound"
⁰Gill was paid thousands of pounds… pic.twitter.com/a1ZY76ivvA

— Victoria Derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) November 21, 2025

For years, we have endured lectures from the political establishment about “national security” and “foreign influence.” The vocabulary has been deployed exclusively against the Left. Corbyn was a “useful idiot.” The Stop the War Coalition was “Putin’s puppets.” Anyone questioning NATO expansion or advocating diplomatic solutions was painted as Moscow’s agent.

Yet here stands Nathan Gill, a senior figure from the populist Right, the very people who wrap themselves in the Union Jack and sing “Land of Hope and Glory” at their conferences. And what was he doing while the BBC was busy defaming Corbyn? Taking direct payments to act as Putin’s mouthpiece in the European Parliament.

This is not an anomaly. It is a pattern. Consider the Qatargate scandal, where EU officials were found with bags of cash from Qatar and Morocco. Consider the endless parade of British MPs accepting “consultancies” and paid trips from foreign governments, then voting on policies that affect our lives. Consider how Russian influence is “hybrid warfare” while Saudi influence is “strategic partnership.”

Gill is simply the latest in a long line that exposes the rot in Western politics.

• Qatargate: While Gill was taking Russian money, EU officials were being found with bags of cash from Qatar and Morocco.
• Lobbying: British MPs routinely take paid trips and “consultancies” from foreign states and pressure groups, then vote on policies that affect our lives.
• The Double Standard: When Russia buys influence, it’s “hybrid warfare.” When “friendly” nations or massive corporations buy our politicians, it’s just “business.”

The double standard is not accidental. It serves a purpose. The establishment does not object to foreign money corrupting our democracy. They object when the wrong foreigners buy the wrong politicians.

Democracy for Sale

Nathan Gill was caught because he was reckless and greedy. But his case raises the question that Westminster desperately wants to avoid: how many others are speaking with someone else’s wallet in their pocket?

The answer, I fear, is more than we would like to know. Our political system has become a marketplace where influence is traded like any other commodity. The only difference between legal and illegal corruption is often just the paperwork. When a Russian oligarch buys access, it is espionage. When an American hedge fund or a Gulf state does the same, it is called “engagement” or “lobbying” or “consultancy.”

Gill wasn’t just one corrupt man. He was a glimpse of a much bigger problem, one that strikes at the heart of sovereignty.

We are told we live in a free country. But how free are we when our representatives are for hire? The working people of this country deserve politicians who answer to them, not to the highest bidder in Moscow, the Gulf, or the City of London.

But under our current system, democracy itself is up for auction. Gill is gone, and good riddance. Yet until we expel private money from politics entirely, ban foreign funding, and make our representatives truly accountable to the public alone, the so-called “patriots” will keep selling us out. Even now, the next Nathan Gill is already warming up in the wings. Labour, Tory, Reform, there’s no discernible difference.

The next time someone wraps themselves in the flag and lectures you about patriotism, check their bank account first. Check for foreign currency…