Zia Yusuf said ‘most people in the senior leadership team have never really heard of the guy’
Reform UK has tried to distance itself from one of the party’s former members who has admitted bribery charges from his time as a member of the European Parliament.
Former MEP and Senedd member Nathan Gill, 52, from Llangefni, Anglesey, last week pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between December 6, 2018 and July 18, 2019.
However, one of the most senior figures in the party has tried to claim Gill was not known to those at the top of Reform UK.
Mr Gill was a Member of the European Parliament for Wales from 2014 to January 2020 at the same time Nigel Farage served in the institution. Gill was first elected as an Ukip candidate, and then again under the Brexit Party banner in the 2019 election, just weeks after Mr Farage started the party.
In May 2016, he was one of the group of Ukip politicians elected to the National Assembly, as then called, having led Ukip in Wales between December 2014 and September 2016, a position appointed by Mr Farage.
Mr Farage also backed Gill to be leader of the Ukip group in the National Assembly for Wales and when he lost to former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton, Mr Farage said it was an “unjust act of deep ingratitude”. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
Gill subsequently left the Ukip group in the assembly to sit as an independent.
He was also leader of Reform UK Wales from March to May 2021, when he resigned from the party.
Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, has also shared images of himself with Gill, including an image in April 2021 where he said it was “great to be with Nathan Gill, leader of Reform UK Wales campaigning today”.
Gill took money from Oleg Voloshyn – a man once described by the US government as a “pawn” of Russian secret services – and made speeches in the parliament, statements to a TV channel and arranged an event with a pro-Russian politician.
Gill will be sentenced in November and his defence barrister said he expected to be jailed.
He was tasked by Ukrainian Oleg Voloshyn, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament for the pro-Russian Opposition Platform for Life party, on at least eight occasions to make specific statements in return for money and there was evidence of WhatsApp messages between the two men.
Zia Yusuf, head of Reform UK Department of Government Efficiency, told BBC Breakfast today: “This is someone who preceded my time in this party.
“What he’s done is appalling and totally unacceptable and treacherous. That is abundantly clear to anybody watching this programme and to all of us at Reform.
“The first time I’d ever heard his name or seen his name was in a news report. This is somebody who was active in what was an extremely nascent party at the time, many years ago.
“I’ve never spoken to him, most people in the senior leadership team have never really heard of the guy.”
Pictures of Mr Farage and Gill together were shown to viewers. To that, Mr Yusuf replied: “Whatever that footage is, Nigel meets tens of thousands of people on an annual basis ultimately, he can’t be held accountable for the actions of every single person who he comes in contact with.
“I’ve never met the guy, Reform is a very nascent political party.”
The footage showed Gill and Mr Farage on the election trail together, including with Mr Farage with his arms round Gill’s shoulders, and in the European Parliament.
Reform UK reiterated Mr Yusuf’s time with the party predated Gill but did not offer any further comment.
Labour has raised questions of what their rival in the Caerphilly by-election, Reform UK candidate Llyr Powell, knew about Gill’s involvement in bribes.
Mr Powell, who hopes to be elected as Reform’s second MS on October 23, has previously been employed by Gill and was involved in the top level of Reform UK’s management structure until standing down to be a candidate. However, his employment by Gill ended in December 2017, predating the period when Gill admitted bribery charges.
