The Welsh First Minister has raised concerns about national security after the former leader of Reform UK in Wales admitted to accepting Russian bribes.
Eluned Morgan’s comments come after Nathan Gill pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for making pro-Russian statements while he was a member of the European Parliament.
Gill was a member of the Welsh Parliament between 2016 and 2017, and leader of Reform UK in Wales for a short period in 2021.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, Baroness Morgan said she agreed with the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar, that Reform UK is a “clear and present danger to our national security”.
She said: “We knew that Reform is a threat in Wales, that there is a real possibility of corruption and chaos and now we have evidence of that, through someone who was the former leader of Reform in Wales.
“I think we’ve all been appalled by the act of the former leader of Reform in Wales, a person who was a member of this chamber.”
On Friday, Nathan Gill, 52, of Anglesey, North Wales, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to eight counts of bribery on dates between December 6 2018 and July 18 2019.
His activities were said to include making pro-Russian statements about events in Ukraine in the European Parliament and in opinion pieces to news outlets.
Gill was first elected as a Ukip member of the European Parliament in 2014 and his role ended when the UK left the EU in 2020 – at which point he was an MEP for the Brexit Party.
He led Reform UK’s 2021 Welsh Parliament election campaign but is understood to have had no involvement with the party since.
The First Minister said: “This is really serious stuff and I do think there are questions to answer by people, not least by Reform’s candidate in the Caerphilly by-election, Llyr Powell, who was employed as an advisor to Gill.
“I think we need to know, what did he know, when did he know it and did he report it?”
Mr Powell is understood to have stopped working for Gill in 2017, before the offences took place.
A Reform UK spokesman said: “This is pure desperation from a Welsh Labour Party that is being rejected by the public and floundering in the polls.
“This sort of gutter politics has no place in Wales.”
