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Reform UK blasted for ‘ancient history’ claims in response to Russian bribes scandal
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader has accused Reform UK of trying to “sweep a politically-threatening truth under the carpet” after the party dismissed questions about its former Welsh leader’s Russian bribery scandal.
Liz Saville Roberts MP hit out after Reform UK’s head of policy, Zia Yusuf, described Nathan Gill, jailed on Friday for taking £40,000 in bribes to make pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament, as “ancient history”.
Ms Saville Roberts said the attempt to minimise Gill’s role was “deeply troubling” and called for a full investigation into Russian interference in UK politics, warning that Welsh voters deserve clarity ahead of next year’s Senedd election.
“Zia Yusuf’s dismissal of any attempt to scrutinise the actions of Reform’s former leader as efforts to ‘besmirch’ his party and Mr Farage is deeply troubling,” she said. “Labelling Nathan Gill as ‘ancient history’, despite these events unfolding less than five years ago, is a cynical attempt to sweep a politically-threatening truth under the carpet.”
Gill, 52, from Anglesey, had been a close ally of Nigel Farage for years, following him from UKIP to the Brexit Party and then to Reform UK, where he briefly became the party’s leader in Wales before his arrest. He pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between December 2018 and July 2019 and was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison.
Saville Roberts said any suggestion that Gill was an irrelevant figure was “insulting to the public’s intelligence”.
“Nathan Gill was not some distant footnote in Reform UK’s evolution,” she said. “He was a trusted ally of Nigel Farage, moving in lockstep with him from UKIP to the Brexit Party and then to Reform UK, ultimately serving as Farage’s right-hand man in Wales.”
She said that if Reform UK had “nothing to hide”, the party should welcome rather than resist scrutiny.
“If Reform UK truly have nothing to hide, they should have no problem with a full investigation into Russian interference in our politics,” she said. “With crucial Senedd elections looming next year, the Welsh public deserves complete transparency about how far Russian money and influence reached into Farage’s inner circle.”
'Unreasonable'
Her comments follow a tense exchange on Sky News, where Yusuf insisted it was “unreasonable” to question Reform UK’s integrity over Gill’s actions.
“What he did was treasonous… but this is a guy which, far as we’re concerned, is ancient history,” he said. “I’ve never met him… I think it is unreasonable to besmirch everybody else at Reform.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also demanded Reform UK launch its own investigation, saying Gill’s actions “undermine our country”. Speaking at the G20 Summit in South Africa, he said: “How did that happen in his party? And what other links are there between Reform and Russia?”
Nigel Farage rejected the criticism, claiming instead that Labour should examine its own “links with the Chinese Communist Party”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey went further, calling Reform UK “a danger to national security” and noting Farage’s paid appearances on Russia Today. “We must all ask – where do his loyalties really lie?” he said.
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