proRussian

A prominent former politician in Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party has denied he took payments as part of a pro-Russian influence campaign in the European Parliament.

David Coburn is named in a series of WhatsApp messages between an alleged “pawn” of the main security agency in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and disgraced former MEP Nathan Gill.

Coburn was also Scotland’s UK Independence Party leader while Gill led the party in Wales and they served as MEPs together for five years.

Messages were released following the conviction of Gill, Reform UK’s former leader in Wales, who was last week jailed for 10-and-a-half years after taking bribes for giving pro-Russia interviews and speeches.

WhatsApps show Oleg Voloshyn, a former pro-Russian member of the Ukraine parliament, discussing money apparently set aside for Coburn while he was bribing Gill.

A document submitted by the Crown Prosecution Service to the Old Bailey last week for Gill’s sentencing hearing includes a message from Voloshyn discussing a payment of $6,500 [about £5,000] for another MEP.

Speaking outside his chateau in France, former Brexit Party and UKIP MEP Coburn answered “no” when a BBC journalist asked him whether he had ever been paid to give a speech to promote pro-Russian campaigners.

The BBC has not seen evidence that Coburn – who led the now defunct UKIP party in Scotland between 2014 and 2018 – was directly offered or received any money.

The messages were sent on 3 April 2019, two months after Coburn joined the Brexit Party, now known as Reform UK.

The CPS claims the conversation is about participation in a meeting of the “editorial board” of two pro-Russian TV channels in Ukraine called 112 Ukraine and NewsOne.

Both were connected to Viktor Medvedchuk, a super-rich Ukrainian oligarch whose daughter has Putin as her godfather and who is a key and close Putin ally.

Sentencing Gill to ten-and-half-years after admitting eight counts of bribery last week, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Medvedchuk was the “ultimate source of the requests and the money” Gill received.

The CPS document says these messages were found on Gill’s seized mobile phone when counter terrorism officers took his device after stopping him at Manchester airport in 2021 – two days before he was due to talk at a conference in Moscow.

The WhatsApps are about money Voloshyn gave Gill to be distributed between himself and “the other MEP” mentioned.

This “other MEP” is referred to as “D” and “David”.

Coburn was the only man named David to publicly appear on this editorial board.

Gill writes that he is “seeing D… in morning” and asks “how much was for him.”

Voloshyn replies “6.5 USD” – this appears to mean $6,500.

Some confusion follows between Voloshyn and Gill about how much cash Gill had been given.

Once this is settled, Voloshyn confirms Gill will be given a further $4,500 in the morning “and other 2 for David you have already with you.”

The BBC had previously made several attempts to contact Coburn – an MEP for Scotland for five years between 2014 and 2019 – but received no reply.

The BBC went to the 66-year-old’s rural home in northern France to ask him in person if he had ever been paid money in connection to the Gill bribery case.

Coburn replied “no” as he left home – but stopped answering as he was questioned about why he was named in the court documents.

He has not responded to a further written request for comment.

Coburn and fellow former UKIP and Brexit Party MEP Jonathan Arnott both visited the two pro-Russian TV channels with Gill in October 2018.

Both Coburn and Arnott also spoke up for the broadcasters in the same European Parliament debate where Gill made a speech in return for money.

Arnott previously told the BBC if Gill had had offered him money, he would have gone to the police.

He also said he criticised Russia in his speech and said the notion he was doing what Russia wanted was “provably nonsensical.”

Speaking in the European Parliament in December 2018, Coburn used similar talking points to Gill.

“The president of Ukraine and the Rada parliament are plotting to close TV channels 112 and Channel One,” Coburn told a plenary session in Strasbourg.

“Can this chamber truthfully say Ukraine, which behaves this way, is ready for EU entry?”

The pro-Russian channels were shut in 2021 under the presidency of Ukraine’s current leader Volodomyr Zelensky.

Gill had also been bribed to organise interviews with other MEPs for the TV stations linked to Medvedchuk.

A number of these had been members of either UKIP, the Brexit Party or both – but the court heard there was no evidence to suggest they were aware Gill was being bribed.

The head of the Met’s counter terrorism unit had said Gill “clearly had a leadership role” and used his influence to get other MEPs to speak “openly in support of the Russian narrative in Ukraine.”

“It does appear in some of the conversations that there has been money put aside to allow other individuals to be paid for their services,” Met Police commander Dominic Murphy told the BBC before Gill’s sentencing.

Voloshyn’s phone was examined when stopped by FBI investigators at Washington DC’s Dulles Airport in July 2021.

That month, the Speaker of the House of Commons warned MPs against talking to Voloshyn as he allegedly had sought the support of UK politicians to “promote Russian foreign policy objectives”.

The US government sanctioned Voloshyn in 2022 and called him a “pawn” of the FSB, Russia’s security service, and accused him of undermining Ukraine’s government.

That same year, the UK government also sanctioned Voloshyn and Medvedchuk, accusing both of “destabilising Ukraine”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on Reform UK leader Farage, the former UKIP and Brexit Party boss, to “launch an investigation into his party urgently” to see if there’s “other links between his party and Russia.”

Farage said he was “very confident, as confident as I can be,” that nobody else in any of his parties, past or present, had done similar things to Gill.

Farage added he was “not a police force” and did not have powers to investigate but did say there should be a broader investigation into Russian and Chinese interference in British politics, suggesting MI5 should conduct it.

In a statement, Reform UK said Coburn has had “no involvement” with the current party.

A Met Police spokesperson said nobody else had been arrested or interviewed under caution but said the force’s investigation “remains ongoing.”

The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has been sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison after admitting taking bribes for pro-Russia interviews and speeches.

Nathan Gill, 52, from Llangefni, Anglesey, is thought to have received up to £40,000 to help pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) when he accepted money from Oleg Voloshyn, 44, a man once described by the US government as a “pawn” of Russian secret services.

At the Old Bailey, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Gill had abused his position and eroded “public confidence in democracy”.

Voloshyn was acting on behalf of a “close friend” of Vladimir Putin – Viktor Medvedchuk, 71, a former oligarch who was the source of the requests and the cash.

The Metropolitan Police said their own investigations are continuing into “whether any other individuals have committed offences”.

Gill is the first politician to be jailed under the Bribery Act.

Reform UK said it was glad justice was served, calling his actions “reprehensible, treasonous and unforgivable”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Gill of “undermining our interests as a country” and called on Reform leader Nigel Farage to investigate what other links the party had with Russia.

Cdr Dominic Murphy, head of the Met Police’s counter-terrorism team, said Gill was an “extraordinarily willing participant” in the bribery, describing his actions as a “threat to national security”.

He said the case formed part of a “breadth of activity” by Russia, including incidents such as the Salisbury poisonings in 2018 and an arson attack in London in 2024.

Gill, who was an MEP from 2014 to 2020 – initially for UKIP and then the Brexit Party – pleaded guilty to eight charges of bribery at an earlier hearing in March.

In return for money he gave two TV interviews to 112 Ukraine in support of Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician who faced treason proceedings at the time.

Medvedchuk was arrested by Ukrainian authorities at the start of the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion, and was later swapped with Moscow in a prisoner exchange.

Medvedchuk was connected to two TV channels – 112 and NewsOne – which in 2018 and 2019 were under threat of closure by the Ukrainian authorities.

Gill gave two speeches defending the channels in the European Parliament, both on request from Voloshyn, whose wife was a presenter on 112 Ukraine.

Both channels were eventually taken off air in 2021.

Voloshyn also tasked Gill with finding other MEPs to speak to 112, and gave him talking points to pass on to them.

The court heard Gill mainly enlisted MEPs from the UK but also some from Germany and France.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court there was no evidence they knew of Gill’s financial motivation.

Police have said there was no evidence Gill was paying others.

In texts obtained by police, Voloshyn said he would “request and secure at least 5K” for Gill if he got “three or four” others on board.

Gill responded: “I shall do my best.”

Gill also hosted Medvedchuk at the European Parliament’s base in Strasbourg to promote a so-called “peace plan” for the Donbas region – an event that was praised by Vladimir Putin the following day on Russian TV.

Voloshyn asked Gill to arrange for colleagues from the Brexit Party to attend, the court heard.

Prosecution barrister Mark Heywood KC said Voloshyn asked Gill to book a room. Gill told them he could “drag a few in”, promising a “small sack of paper gifts”.

In one set of messages, Voloshyn offered to bring $13,000 USD (£9,936) to him, as well as €4,000 (£3,516) for the peace plan.

By December 2018, Mr Heywood said messages indicated there was already a “close relationship between the two men”.

In her sentencing remarks, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said there was “scant personal mitigation”.

“The enlisting of fellow representatives into this activity compounds the wrongdoing, undermining the mutual trust essential to the proper functioning of democratic institutions,” she said.

Police began investigating Gill after tip-offs from their intelligence sources – including the FBI, who found messages to Gill on Voloshyn’s phone when he travelled to the US in 2021.

Officers were on the way to search Gill’s house on Anglesey, north Wales, on 13 September 2021 when they learned he had already left for Manchester Airport, in order to fly to Russia to attend a conference and observe elections.

Gill was stopped and detained at the airport under counter-terrorism laws. His phone was searched and found to contain messages to Voloshyn.

Voloshyn used innuendoes to refer to money, on one occasion messaging Gill: “I’ve received all promised Xmas gifts and requested five more postcards for your kind help next week during the debate.”

He provided scripts and instructions, directing Gill to speak up on behalf of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne.

“The budget and project is confirmed by V,” he told Gill on 4 December 2018, referencing Viktor Medvedchuk, adding “V always delivers if he promises”.

His message continued: “V was very excited when I told him of this option. And he really counts on it to happen.”

Police searching Gill’s house found €5,000 and $5,000 in cash. The court heard an application to recover £30,000 from Gill, but police think he could have made up to £40,000.

The earliest offence Gill pleaded guilty to dates to the same day he left UKIP in 2018.

He continued taking bribes after joining Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party.

Later, he led the party into the 2021 Senedd election after it rebranded as Reform UK.

In mitigation, defence barrister Peter Wright told the court his actions may seem “unfathomable” given the “laudable and noble” features of his political life.

“He recognises, and did by his guilty pleas, the enormity of what he has done and the betrayal of the trust placed in him,” Mr Wright said.

Farage has previously said he had no knowledge of Gill’s “shameful activities” and condemned them “in every possible way”.

Police said there was no link to Farage in their investigation.

Gill also represented North Wales in the Welsh Parliament from 2016 to 2017. Police found no evidence to suggest criminal activity linked to this period.

In addition to the eight charges to which he pleaded guilty, he pleaded not guilty to one charge, of conspiracy to commit bribery.

“Nathan Gill has absolutely been held to account for his activity,” said Cdr Murphy.

“That should send a strong message to any elected official or anyone in an official capacity who is asked to act on behalf of another government and paid money to do so.”

There were calls from the Liberal Democrats for a wider investigation into Russian influence in British politics from the Liberal Democrats.

Party leader Sir Ed Davey said: “A traitor was at the very top of Reform UK, aiding and abetting a foreign adversary.”

Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville Roberts said if the former Reform UK leader in Wales was part of a “broader, coordinated effort to advance Moscow’s agenda within our democratic institutions, then the public deserves to know the full truth”.

Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Darren Millar said: “Reform is a threat to our national security.”

Additional reporting by Daniel Davies.