Three more Farage bloc MEPs alleged to have followed Russian asset’s script

about 12 hours ago

Three more British MEPs from Nigel Farage’s bloc are alleged to have “followed the script” given to a colleague who was being bribed by an alleged Russian asset, according to prosecutors, as a police investigation into the affair continues,The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has named Jonathan Bullock, Julia Reid and Steven Woolfe, saying they followed the script provided to Nathan Gill by Oleg Voloshyn when giving interviews to 112 Ukraine, a pro-Russian TV channel in March 2019,In all, at least eight MEPs elected for either Ukip or the Brexit party are now known to have been the focus of efforts by Reform UK’s former Wales leader Gill to co-opt them into fulfilling tasks set for him by his Kremlin paymasters,The claims that the three followed Gill’s talking points – disclosed in CPS documents in Gill’s case – are among those which have raised fresh questions over the extent of Gill’s influence since his jailing last month,There is no suggestion that any of the three committed criminal acts or had been aware Gill took bribes to promote Russian interests.

Amid the continuing police investigation, the Labour party has called on Farage to voluntarily offer to help investigators, who have already spoken to MEPs he led in the European parliament.The chair of the Labour party, Anna Turley MP, said: “He must order an urgent investigation into pro-Russia links in Reform, and he should voluntarily go to the police for interview and help them with their inquiries.”Last week, another former leading member of the group of MEPs headed by Farage denied taking money as part of a campaign to promote Russian interests.David Coburn, who was also the leader of Ukip in Scotland for four years, was mentioned in WhatsApp messages between Gill and Voloshyn – a former Ukrainian MEP who is accused of the bribery – that were released by prosecutors.The messages showed Gill and Voloshyn apparently discussing how much should be set aside for Coburn, who was also an MEP for Reform UK’s precursor the Brexit party.

Coburn denied taking any payment when confronted by BBC journalists outside his home in France.The messages were sent in April 2019 before a meeting at the European parliament of the editorial board of 112 Ukraine, whose membership included Gill and Coburn, and which was connected to Viktor Medvedchuk, Vladimir Putin’s ally in Ukraine.Bullock rejected any wrongdoing on his part when the Guardian approached him, saying that the comments he made to 112 Ukraine about the sovereignty of nation states were normal in the context of his role as an energy spokesperson.A transcript of Bullock’s comments to the channel record that he stated: “I do think that it’s much better for nation states to act individually, so Ukraine’s to do what’s best in Ukraine’s interest and likewise we in western Europe and in the United Kingdom, for example, to do what we would like.”Contacted by the Guardian, Bullock said that he was a known critic of Russia, adding: “My comment was a standard run-of-the-mill answer from me which I connected with my energy views on UK choices relating to nuclear power and renewables.

”Woolfe declined to comment when approached by the Guardian,However, a friend said that police had never contacted or investigated the former MEP,“He does feel personally appalled by the way he and others have been dragged into it but the reality is he has nothing to hide,” they added,It is understood that Gill had appealed to Woolfe’s interest in free speech, knowing that this was an issue the then MEP for North West England was particularly interested in,Reid did not respond to requests for comment.

The former head of Gill’s office in Brussels, Ethan Wilkinson, has also denied to the Guardian that he received any payment, after documents released by the CPS showed Voloshyn suggesting he should be rewarded with “3k euro” for his “fieldwork”.“I was Nathan’s head of office in Brussels and I recall submitting paperwork in relation to ‘mission’ expenses and resolutions for the EFDD group, all of which I genuinely believed were legitimate activities of an MEP who was advocating for free speech/expression/freedom of the press,” he said, referring to the Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European parliament.“I didn’t receive any payment from Mr Voloshyn,” said Wilkinson, who went on to work for the TaxPayer’s Alliance and was also a Conservative party local election candidate.“I had no idea that he was a Russian intelligence asset, I had no idea Nathan was being paid by him or anybody else to carry out this work, and I fully cooperated in the Met police investigation into Mr Gill as a witness, including sharing WhatsApp conversations etc.”Other MEPs elected for either Ukip or the Brexit party who were named in the CPS note include Jonathan Arnott, who visited Ukraine with Gill on an October 2018 trip.

During the visit, Coburn, Gill and Arnott appeared on camera in interviews with 112 Ukraine and all made similar statements six weeks later during a debate in the European parliament on 11 December that touched on press freedom in Ukraine and the question of whether it should be allowed to join the EU.Arnott spoke to the police as a potential witness, the Guardian understands.He has rejected any suggestion that he had links to Russia or was acting in its interests.Alex Phillips, who was a Brexit party MEP, told the Guardian last month she had voluntarily gone to speak to the police when she learned of the investigation into Gill.The CPS note states Gill had promised his handler Voloshyn that he would “get Alex [Phillips]” to speak, although this does not appear to have happened and Phillips has since stressed that she was outspoken in her hostility to Putin.

Another Brexit party MEP, James Wells, was named in the CPS notes in the context of a fresh intervention by Gill in September 2019.The notes state Gill asked Voloshyn to send him lines to take in a European parliament subcommittee on human rights.WhatsApp messages indicate Gill had commented in the media afterwards and “secured the cooperation” of Wells.Gill reported that he had taken Wells out for dinner as a thank you, to which Voloshyn replied: “Wonderful! We owe you for that.”Wells, who has accused Gill of dragging colleagues into his activities without their knowledge, has told the Guardian: “I had no knowledge of what Gill was up to at the time.

The police did not require an interview with me after I had a short call with them, so there is no question about my innocence.”

businessSee all

Ministers urged to close £2bn tax loophole in car finance scandal

Ministers are being urged to close a loophole that will allow UK banks and specialist lenders to avoid paying £2bn in tax on their payouts to motor finance scandal victims.Under the current law, any operation that is not a bank can deduct compensation payments from their profits before calculating their corporation tax, reducing their bill.UK banks have been blocked from claiming this relief since 2015, but it has now emerged that those due to pay redress as part of the pending £11bn car loan compensation scheme can exploit it because their motor finance arms are considered “non-bank entities”.The Guardian has learned this includes the operations of big high street names including Barclays and Santander UK, and Lloyds Banking Group, which is the UK’s biggest provider of car loans through its Black Horse division.Specialist lenders in the scandal, which include the lending arms of car manufacturers such as Honda and Ford, also fall outside this taxation rule

1 day ago

Cloudflare admits ‘we have let the Internet down again’ after outage hits major web services – as it happened

Technical problems at internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare today have taken a host of websites offline this morning.Cloudflare said shortly after 9am UK time that it “is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs [application programming interfaces – used when apps exchange data with each other].Cloudflare has also reported it has implemented a potential fix to the issue and is monitoring the results.But the outage has affected a number of websites and platforms, with reports of problems accessing LinkedIn, X, Canva – and even the DownDetector site used to monitor online service issues.Last month, an outage at Cloudflare made many websites inaccessible for about three hours

2 days ago

BP to scrap paid rest breaks and most bank holiday bonuses for forecourt staff

BP is ditching paid rest breaks and most bank holiday bonuses for 5,400 workers in its petrol forecourts as it attempts to offset a planned rise in the independent living wage.The company has told workers in its 310 company-run forecourts that it will be changing their benefits in February. Workers at a further 850 BP-branded forecourts run by partners are on different pay deals.BP is an accredited member of the Living Wage Foundation’s fair pay scheme, under which employers commit to pay staff an annually set wage to meet living costs.Hourly pay for BP’s affected workers will rise to a minimum of £13

2 days ago

Financial markets now certain the RBA will hike interest rates in 2026

Financial markets are now pricing in a 100% chance the Reserve Bank will hike rates in 2026, in what would be a blow to mortgage holders but may take some steam out of an overheating property market.The latest forecasts represent a turnaround from just two weeks ago, when traders were factoring in an even chance that the next RBA move would be a cut by its May meeting.It comes as data showed inflation is now moving in the wrong direction, alongside this week’s national accounts and household spending figures which showed the economy is accelerating into the new year.Adam Donaldson, the head of interest rates strategy at the Commonwealth Bank, said “the market has come to the conclusion that the Reserve bank won’t be cutting rates any further”.“Basically, from February onwards, the market is starting to price some risk that rates will go up

3 days ago

UK first-time buyers in best position to snap up property in a decade, data shows

Buyers attempting to get on to the property ladder in the UK have received a lift, after figures from Halifax showed they are in the best position to snap up a home in a decade.Britain’s biggest mortgage lender said that the average price of a UK property hit a record high of £299,892 in November, after a marginal month-on-month rise.However, Halifax said when property prices were compared with average incomes, affordability was at its strongest since late 2015.The lender added that taking into account higher interest rates – the average two-year fixed mortgage rate is 4.85%, according to Moneyfacts – mortgage costs as a share of incomewere at their lowest level in about three years

3 days ago

‘Tough market conditions’ hit UK half-year retail sales at Frasers Group

The owner of Sports Direct and Flannels has said sales have fallen at its UK retail businesses amid heavy discounting by rivals and “very subdued” consumer confidence.Frasers, which is controlled by the former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, said sales at its UK sports division were down 5.8% in the six months to 26 October to £1.3bn despite growth at the main Sports Direct chain because of “planned decline” at its Game outlets and the Studio Retail online arm.Michael Murray, the chief executive of Frasers Group, which also owns House of Fraser department stores, Jack Wills and dozens of other brands and a number of shopping centres, said “market conditions are tough” and “consumer confidence is very subdued”

3 days ago

societySee all