Reform UK candidate voted Plaid Cymru whilst working for disgraced politician Nathan Gill

Emily Price

A Reform Wales Senedd election hopeful advocated voting for Plaid Cymru whilst he was employed by disgraced former Wales leader Nathan Gill.

On June 6 2017, two days before the general election, Gethin James - who was then a Senedd staffer - published a post to social media saying that he planned to vote for Plaid Cymru's Ben Lake.

Responding to a now deleted post on X, formerly Twitter, James wrote: "I'll be voting for @BenMLake to silence the Liberals #Ceredigion #UKIP #brexit."

Two days later, Lake won the Ceredigion constituency, gaining the seat from Liberal Democrat Mark Williams with 29.2% of the overall vote.

At the time he said he was voting for Plaid, James was working for ex-Reform politician Nathan Gill as staffer in the Welsh Parliament.

Gill recently pled guilty to eight counts of taking bribes in return for making pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in November at the Old Bailey in London.

Gill was first elected as a UKIP MEP in 2014 and was one of seven UKIP members who won seats in what was then known a the Welsh Assembly in the 2016 election.

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Support

After infighting he left the party's group in August that year to sit as an independent member for north Wales before he was replaced by UKIP's Mandy Jones in December 2017.

Gill went on to lead Reform UK's 2021 Welsh Parliament election campaign.

Although he was sitting in the Welsh Assembly as an independent in 2017, Gill was still sitting under UKIP's banner alongside Nigel Farage in the European Parliament whilst James worked for him.

It's unclear why James chose to support Plaid Cymru in the 2017 general election when he could have voted for UKIP's candidate for the Ceredigion constituency, Tom Harrison.

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'Disrepute'

A political source told Nation.Cymru: "At the time, when he was voting for Plaid, Mr James was a Nathan Gill staffer in what was then the Welsh Assembly.

"Mr Gill sat as an Independent UKIP representative in the Assembly - now Senedd - whilst also sitting as part of the UKIP group, along with Mr Farage, in the European Parliament.

"Mr James was later employed by Mandy Jones in the Assembly/Senedd.

"Also, there was a UKIP candidate in the Ceredigion parliamentary constituency in 2017, whilst Mr James advocated a Plaid Cymru vote.

"So, Mr James was employed by a UKIP representative but advocated voting Plaid Cymru in an election when there was a UKIP candidate in his constituency who he could have supported.

"Mr James' actions were public opposition to the party whose representatives employed him and he brought that party into disrepute.

"If Mr Gill or Mr Farage knew of his actions, why didn't they ask him to stop his opposition to the party that they were representing at the time?

"If Reform UK promote him as one of the top three candidates in a Senedd constituency in the near future, what is to say that he won't behave in the same treacherous and underhanded manner like he has in the past?

"If he does, will Reform UK end up having to expel him as a party member shortly after supporting his election?

"It would be interesting to hear Mr James' and Reform UK's present thoughts on this."

Questions

James recently told politicians in an S4C green room that he had worked for Nathan Gill in the Welsh Parliament and that he had ambitions to stand for Reform UK in the May Senedd election next year.

We asked Gethin James the following questions:

*Does Reform UK know that you previously publicly announced you were voting Plaid Cymru whilst working for a UKIP representative?

*What was it about Plaid Cymru that made you lend the party your vote?

*When you worked for Nathan Gill, did you have any suspicions or concerns about his links to Russia?

*What did you think when you saw that your former employer had pleaded guilty to taking Russian bribes? Did it surprise you?

*When was the last time you spoke to Nathan Gill - are you still friends?

We did not received a response. Reform UK was also invited to comment but did not respond.