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Dear John,

Today at the Old Bailey, Nathan Gill - former UKIP MEP, ex–Reform UK leader in Wales, and now fully exposed Kremlin mouthpiece - was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison for taking Russian bribes.

It’s a political scandal of rare magnitude, and a warning for anyone still under the illusion that foreign interference is a fringe problem rather than a growing threat embedded deep in our politics.

Gill has admitted he took cash from pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Oleg Voloshyn, a man plugged directly into Putin’s inner circle, in exchange for pushing Kremlin talking points in the European Parliament. Not exactly a subtle cloak-and-dagger operation.

Nigel Farage, of course, has been keen to distance himself from the stench. For months he pretended not to know Gill, despite working with him closely for years. Then, when the evidence became undeniable, he shifted the script: Gill “betrayed” him and was simply “one bad apple.”

It’s convenient to focus on one fruit, a strategy designed to suggest the tree is healthy and the rest of us should stop asking awkward questions. But that collapses the moment you ask whether it’s remotely plausible that Gill was operating inside a major foreign influence network with nobody else around him noticing a thing.

Then there’s the context Farage desperately hopes everyone forgets. His long habit of echoing narratives that delight the Kremlin - from claiming the West “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to praising Putin as a world leader. Add in Reform UK’s own murky ties to crypto donors and deep-pocketed backers, and the questions become increasingly difficult to wave away.

Judge Cheema-Grubb captured the gravity of the moment today: “Your misconduct erodes public confidence in democracy… When politicians succumb to financial inducement, the public can no longer rely on the veracity of political debate,” she told Gill.

Exactly right. It’s not just one bad apple or even one bad tree - the entire orchard is at risk. The interference problem goes beyond Moscow. Britain has become an easy target, whether its the Trump administration stoking culture wars or other hostile governments recruiting spies insider Parliament.

Gill’s sentence is accountability for one corrupt politician. But we can’t let things lie there. We need systemic reform: tougher vetting, genuine transparency in political donations, strict limits on foreign-linked funding and a government willing to treat hostile-state interference as the national security threat it is.

This is exactly why Open Britain exists: to expose these threats and fight for a political system that serves the public, not oligarchs, extremists or foreign operatives. And that is exactly what we will continue to do.

If you share our belief that Britain deserves a democracy free from corruption and foreign manipulation, please consider making a donation today using one of the buttons below to support our work. It doesn’t have to be much. Our campaign is built on a model of small donations from a large number of supporters - infinitely preferable to the model of large donations from a small number of supporters that Mr Farage prefers.

Thank you.

All the best,

Mark Kieran

CEO, Open Britain
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