Ex-Brexit Party MEP named in Nathan Gill messages denies taking pro-Russian payments

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.

"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."