Nigel Farage has insisted that a former senior figure in his party convicted of taking pro-Russian bribes is a “bad apple”.
Nathan Gill, who led Reform UK in Wales in 2021, admitted taking bribes to make statements in favour of Vladimir Putin’s Russia while he was a member of the European Parliament.
His activities were said to include making pro-Russian statements about events in Ukraine in the European Parliament and in opinion pieces to news outlets.
Speaking at a campaign visit in Caerphilly on Friday, Mr Farage said he was “shocked” by Gill’s admissions, but claimed Reform does everything it can to vet their candidates despite the party’s vetting process being beset by issues.
Asked about Gill’s admission, Mr Farage said: “Any political party can find in their midst all sorts of terrible people.
“Gill is particularly shocking because I knew him as a devout Christian, very clean-living, honest person. So I’m deeply shocked. But you know, that is a different time.
“I’m the only one [in Reform] that really knew him, going back a long way.”
Gill, 52, pleaded guilty last month to eight counts of bribery between December 6, 2018 and July 18, 2019.
He was the leader of Reform UK Wales from March to May 2021.
Mr Farage added: “Every single political party has a bad apple, in fact, many families finish up with a bad apple, these things happen.
“It’s not to downplay the severity of it… but it’s historic. You can never, ever guarantee 100 per cent that everyone you meet in your life, you shake hands with in the pub, is a good person.
“What you can do is, you know, do everything you can through vetting and everything else, to make sure that you put before the public good, decent people, and that is something we work very hard at.”
Reform UK has been plagued by issues with its candidates, councillors and MPs, despite Mr Farage promising to professionalise the party.
Earlier this year, Reform MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock James McMurdock resigned the party whip amid allegations that he took out government loans during the Covid pandemic for businesses with no employees.
It came just months after MP Rupert Lowe was stripped of the whip amid allegations he made “verbal threats” against Zia Yousaf, the party’s chairman – allegations Mr Lowe denied.
And during the general election campaign, the party was hit by a series of revelations about the online activities of some of its would-be MPs, from links to a British fascist leader to suggestions the UK should have remained neutral in the fight against the Nazis and admiration of Adolf Hitler’s “brilliant” ability to inspire action.
But in July, Mr Farage said he “can’t apologise” for the 2024 election vetting process because he was not involved in it.
“I came in, I inherited this situation where hundreds of candidates who stood in the last general election had not gone through a vetting process”, he said.
The Reform leader threatened legal action against Vetting.com, alleging it “stitched up” the right-wing party due to chair Colin Bloom’s past links to the Conservative Party.
Vetting said it simply did not have time to scrutinise all 609 of Reform’s candidates before the snap summer poll.
