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Former leader of Reform UK in Wales charged with bribery offences

Former leader of Reform UK in Wales charged with bribery offences

The Guardian20-02-2025

Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, has been charged with multiple bribery offences after an investigation led by the police's counter-terrorism command.
Gill, 51, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, under the Criminal Law Act 1977, and with eight counts of bribery, under the Bribery Act 2010, police said.
He will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Monday 24 February.
A spokesperson for Reform said not only was Gill no longer a member of the party, but that he had never been a member. 'He's nothing to do with the party. Membership records show he has never been a member,' they said.
Material on Facebook from 2021 shows Gill wearing a Reform UK rosette while campaigning with Richard Tice, who is now Reform UK's deputy leader. 'Great to be with Nathan Gill, leader of Reform UK Wales, campaigning today,' Tice posted.
Police said Gill, who lives in Anglesey (Ynys Môn), north Wales, was charged by postal requisition, adding: 'The investigation has been led by detectives from the Met's counter-terrorism command and a man was previously interviewed under caution on 3 March 2022 in connection with bribery allegations.
'Further inquiries were carried out by officers and after authorisation by the Crown Prosecution Service counter-terrorism division, the man was subsequently charged as above.'
Gill became an MEP for Ukip in 2014, a role that ended when Britain left the European Union.
He quit Ukip after accusing it of losing its focus on Brexit to pursue an anti-Islam agenda.
In 2019 he was elected to the European parliament for Nigel Farage's Brexit party, the forerunner to Reform UK.
Gill was also a member of the national assembly for Wales between May 2016 and December 2017.
After leaving Ukip he sat as an independent and in 2021 was billed as Reform UK's leader in Wales before Senedd elections. He failed to win a seat.
On his X account, last updated in 2021, Gill wrote: 'The last MEP for Wales, having worked for 16 years to make it so. Love my God, my family and my country. Not ashamed or afraid to be patriotic.'
In 2016 he described the importance to his life of his Mormon faith. He told the BBC that he was teetotal and had been a bishop in Anglesey with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for six years.

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