Former British MEP sentenced to 10 years for taking bribes to make pro-Russia statements

A far-right British politician and former MEP was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison on Friday for accepting bribes to make favourable statements about Russia in the European Parliament.

Nathan Gill, 52, pleaded guilty earlier this year to eight counts of bribery between December 2018 and July 2019.

Prosecutors said Gill, a former member of the European Union legislature who also led the Reform UK party in Wales, was tasked by former Ukrainian politician Oleg Voloshyn, an alleged Russian asset, to make statements in return for money.

Voloshyn, who left Ukraine shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, has been repeatedly accused of working for Russian intelligence services.

He has been under UK and Canadian sanctions since March 2022, while Kyiv formally accused him of state treason over alleged “subversive activities against Ukraine.”

At his sentencing hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Gill had accepted money in “exchange for the improper execution of (his) public duties.”

She said he had “advanced narratives advantageous to Russian interests concerning Ukraine.”

Gill was stopped at Manchester Airport in September 2021 under British counterterrorism laws and following an investigation was charged in February this year.

Gill was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 for the anti-EU UK Independence Party and later represented the Brexit Party.

He remained in the legislature until Britain left the bloc in 2020.

He led the Welsh branch of the Brexit Party’s successor Reform UK during the 2021 elections in Wales, but is no longer a member, the party said.