Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Farage seeks to distance Reform from the Russians
The website says that Farage – who led both of those parties – told the BBC on Friday: "I'm the only person in the senior management team of Reform who's ever even met him", however, Reform's current deputy leader Richard Tice and chairman David Bull both spent time with the Anglesey-based politician, who was an MEP for Wales between 2014 and 2020:
Before his exposure as a Russian asset, Gill was effusively praised by Tice at a Brexit Party event in 2019. Introducing Gill to the stage, Tice said: "Your first speaker is well known to you. He's been an MEP for the last five years. He's also before that been a very successful entrepreneur who employed over 200 people."
Tice was leader of Reform when he posted on social media a picture of himself smiling next to Gill outside the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. The post, from April 2021, read: "Great to be with Nathan Gill, leader of Reform UK Wales, campaigning today. Wales needs to reopen, never lockdown again and focus on cutting taxes..."
In 2019 Gill filmed himself welcoming newly-elected Brexit Party colleagues to the European Parliament – including David Bull, who at the time was MEP for North West England and is now chairman of Reform. Bull could be seen smiling, puffing out his cheeks and saying "it's overwhelming" as Gill filmed his reaction to the parliament's Strasbourg headquarters.
Gill and Bull were among a delegation of MEPs who visited Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019, alongside fellow Brexit Party members Alexandra Phillips and James Wells. The visit was controversial as Kashmir's opposition parties had been barred from fact-finding missions since India withdrew the region's semi-autonomous status.
Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said: "Nigel Farage has been caught lying again. His own deputy, Richard Tice, stood alongside Nathan Gill and heaped praise on him – the former Reform leader in Wales who has now admitted taking Russian bribes.
"It’s yet another example of Farage saying whatever suits him in the moment, no matter the facts."
This story is going to run all the way to the Senedd elections.
