A key ally of Nigel Farage has broken Reform UK’s silence on its former party leader in Wales who was jailed last week for taking bribes from Russia.
Zia Yusuf, the party’s former chairman and key member of Reform’s leadership, claimed that it was “unreasonable” to link Gill’s crime with the softer stance that the party and Mr Farage have taken on Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its criticism of the Ukraine war.
Mr Yusuf described Gill as “treasonous, horrific, awful” in an interview with Sir Trevor Phillips on his Sunday morning political show on Sky News.
Gill, 52, was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison at the Old Bailey on Friday after previously pleading guilty to eight counts of bribery on dates between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.
Ms Justice Cheema-Grubb handed him the sentence as she said that the harm he had caused was “profound” and that he had “fundamentally compromised” the integrity of a legislative body for “substantial” financial gain.
Gill’s activities included making pro-Russia statements about events in Ukraine in the European parliament and in opinion pieces for news outlets, for which he was paid £40,000.
Gill was first elected a member of the European parliament in 2014, representing Ukip, and his role ended when the UK left the EU in 2020 – at which point he was an MEP for the Brexit Party and a close ally of Mr Farage.
He led Reform UK’s 2021 Welsh parliament election campaign, but left the party that year.
Previously, Mr Farage has said he was “shocked” about the revelations and described Gill as a “bad apple”.
But on his show Sir Trevor linked Gill’s activities in the European Parliament where he asked questions on behalf of Russia to money, to positions taken by Reform since.
Acknowledging that Gill left the party four years ago, he said: “I tell you why this matters to you politically, Mr Nathan Gill, your former leader in Wales…is now starting a long sentence for taking money from Russians.
“There will be many people who will say ‘well, these guys are soft on Putin, they think the whole war is partly our fault and not his, why should we trust anything they say about Russia given that one of their people took money from Russians?’”
Mr Yusuf responded: “I think that would be an incredibly unreasonable position to take. Look Nathan Gill what he did was treasonous, horrific, awful, he’s now been dealt with by the authorities, he deserves the sentence that he has got.
“But, as you have just said, this is a guy that as far as we are concerned is ancient history. I have never met him. I had never heard of him actually until I saw his name sadly in the newspapers.
“So I think it is unreasonable to besmirch everyone else at Reform and the millions of people around the country who support Nigel and support our party.”
