Blink and you may have missed it, but one of Nigel Farage’s allies has plead guilty to taking bribes to ask questions on behalf of Russia in the European Parliament, a case according to the police that goes to the heart of our democracy.

Back in 2012, Nathan Gill, was a rising star in Nigel Farage’s former outfit, UKIP. He organised the party in Anglesey, North Wales and whilst they didn’t break through in the 2013 local elections, he clearly made a name for himself because later in the year he was selected as the UKIP candidate in the Ynys Môn by election of that year.

Fast forward a year and he had impressed Farage enough to be selected to be a candidate for the European Parliament. As the top candidate on the list for Wales, one of the UKIP Members of the European Parliament who was elected in the election of 2014.

Gill was then announced the Leader of UKIP Wales by Farage a few months after his win in the European Parliamentary Election. This enabled him to raise his profile as the UKIP spokesperson during the 2015 leaders debates in Wales and finally to attain election to the Senedd as one of the members for North Wales.

UKIP, the Brexit Party and Reform UK are famous for their factional infighting, and Gill was not exempt from this, having been appointed by Farage as UKIP Wales’ leader only to be beaten in the vote for the leader of their Senedd group by Neil Hamilton.

This understandably caused some irritation for Gill who dramatically quit UKIP in the Senedd whilst remaining a UKIP Member of the European Parliament.

Farage has a reputation for ruthlessness, and a large number of the 2014-19 UKIP MEPs were dramatically cut from the Brexit Party list for the 2019 European Parliament elections, being replaced by people who went on to become prominent in Reform.

Gill however, survived the cull and secured re-election to the European Parliament and later became the Leader of Reform UK in Wales, leading the party to a poor performance in the Senedd elections in 2021.
This long association as Nigel Farage’s man in Wales then bring up questions following Nathan Gill pleading guilty to taking money to lobby for the terrorist state of Russia in the European Parliament.

At the time of writing, Farage has not made any comment distancing himself from Gill or even condemning his old friend for betraying our country, this very clearly creates a huge risk for national security.

This all comes together to raise a series of incredibly serious questions for Farage, Reform UK and their old political ally and leader in Wales, Nathan Gill. These are questions that the public are entitled to answers about:

• When did Farage find out that his man in Wales was selling out the UK to Russia?
• Are there any other Members of the European Parliament linked to Farage that have taken bribes to betray their country?
• If he missed this, then does it mean he doesn’t recognise a national security risk when it is staring him in the face?

Given all the uncertainty about Farage’s close association with a man who took bribes to betray his country from Russia, a terrorist state, one thing is crystal clear – we cannot let this man become Prime Minister.

* Callum Robertson is a teacher and member of the Federal Board. He is a Watford Borough Councillor.