It was a dramatic fall from grace for Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales and once a member of the European Parliament. On November 21, 2025, Gill was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison after admitting to taking bribes to promote pro-Russian views—a case that has sent shockwaves through British and European politics, and reignited calls for stronger safeguards against foreign interference.
The story began to unravel in September 2021, when police stopped Gill at Manchester Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Russia. According to reporting by BBC and Sky News, officers seized his phone and, during a subsequent raid on his Anglesey home, discovered cash piles of €5,000 and $5,000, along with incriminating messages. These messages, often disguised as talk of “Xmas gifts” and “postcards,” revealed a covert scheme: Gill had been receiving payments from Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian politician with close ties to Viktor Medvedchuk—himself an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Gill’s actions, prosecutors said, were both deliberate and systematic. Between December 2018 and July 2019, while serving as an MEP, he received around £40,000 (about $52,500) from Voloshyn in exchange for parroting pro-Russian statements, sometimes almost verbatim, in public forums and the European Parliament. As Nation.Cymru first reported, Voloshyn—sanctioned by the US Treasury for acting as a “pawn” of Russian intelligence and wanted for high treason in Ukraine—would dictate talking points for Gill, who then repeated them to the press or in speeches.
One striking example came when Gill appeared on 112 Ukraine, a now-banned TV channel known for its pro-Russian stance. There, he criticized Ukrainian authorities for investigating Medvedchuk, expressing concern that the move was intended to silence opposition politicians. According to Sky News, Gill told the channel he was “very concerned” about the investigation, and wondered whether it was meant to silence “opposition politicians.” Prosecutors later revealed that this was at Voloshyn’s explicit request, with the promise of a “reward” if Gill would publicly denounce the prosecution as an attack on political convictions.
The scheme went beyond just statements. Gill helped organize an event in Strasbourg to promote a so-called peace plan for the Donbas region—an area already partially occupied by Russian forces. The following day, Putin himself praised the event on Russian television, further underscoring the impact of Gill’s actions. Police also uncovered messages in which Gill offered to recruit other MEPs from the UK, Germany, and France, with Voloshyn promising additional payments if he brought in “three or four” colleagues. “I’ll get you 5k,” Voloshyn wrote in one exchange. While the judge found no evidence that these other MEPs were aware of the bribes, the messages suggested Gill was actively seeking to expand the operation.
In the wake of the sentencing, condemnation was swift and severe. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, quoted by the Associated Press, called Gill “a traitor” and questioned “where do his loyalties really lie?” Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Gill of undermining national interests and demanded that Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, examine his party’s links to Russia. Darren Millar, the Welsh Conservative Senedd leader, went so far as to label Reform UK “a threat to national security.”
For its part, Reform UK wasted no time distancing itself from Gill. A party spokesman described his actions as “reprehensible, treasonous and unforgivable,” welcoming the prison sentence. Farage himself said he had no knowledge of the bribery and called Gill a “bad apple,” adding, “Any political party can find in their midst all sorts of terrible people. You can never, ever guarantee 100% that everyone you meet in your life, you shake hands with in the pub, is a good person.” Farage also welcomed further investigations into Russian and Chinese influence in British politics.
Commander Dominic Murphy of the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation, said Gill was an “extraordinarily willing participant” in a wider Russian effort to undermine democracy in the UK. Murphy linked the bribery case to other recent Russian activities in Britain, including the Salisbury poisonings and a 2024 arson attack in London. “This is where we get into that slightly odd situation where it feels very much like a real effort to undermine democracy here,” Murphy told Sky News. He added that Gill, while displaying some pro-Russian sympathies, appeared primarily motivated by financial gain.
Yet the story doesn’t end with Gill’s conviction. As Nation.Cymru uncovered, Gill remains eligible to receive a “generous” European Union pension—worth more than €25,000 a year—less than two months after he completes his prison term. Because his sentence will end 46 days before his 63rd birthday, Gill will be able to start drawing the pension, as well as a smaller one from his brief service in the Senedd. The European Parliament’s rules grant lifetime pensions to all former MEPs who served at least a year, calculated at 3.5% of their salary for each full year in office. With five years and seven months of service, Gill stands to receive about €2,135 a month.
This revelation has sparked fresh outrage among politicians and campaigners in both Brussels and Cardiff. Nick Aiossa, Director at Transparency International EU, told Nation.Cymru, “EU citizens expect the actions of their elected representatives to have consequences. There is no reason any MEP who abuses their office, and accepts bribes, should be able to receive a European taxpayer-funded pension.” Daniel Freund, a Green MEP from Germany, echoed the sentiment, arguing that “anyone who has been legally convicted of corruption in connection with their work in the European Parliament should, of course, be punished for it. And we need to look at pensions as well: if someone has seriously damaged the Parliament’s reputation, they should not continue to receive a generous pension from the European Parliament.”
In the UK, similar debates are underway. Mick Antoniw, a Welsh Labour MS and former chief legal adviser to the Welsh Government, said the rules should be changed to exclude those found guilty of serious misconduct: “Someone who has abused their position to take a criminal financial advantage should be disqualified from pension entitlement at the expense of public funds.” While police and legal experts note that some public service pension schemes can strip benefits in cases of gross misconduct, no such rules currently exist for the Senedd’s pension scheme.
Meanwhile, the investigation into Russian interference continues. Police are still probing whether other individuals may have broken the law, with no evidence so far implicating Farage or other senior Reform UK figures. Voloshyn, believed to be in Russia, remains wanted in both the UK and Ukraine, and has been sanctioned by the UK government.
The Nathan Gill case has exposed not just the vulnerabilities of individual politicians, but the broader risks of foreign influence in democratic institutions. As calls for reform grow louder, the political fallout from this scandal is likely to reverberate well beyond Wales and Brussels.
