Catherine Dunlop
Nathan Gill (the former MEP accused of accepting bribes to ‘read out Russian scripted speeches’) is sentenced to 10 ½ years in prison
Extracts from the Judge summing up.
Why did Gill plead guilty ?
There is a 25 % automatic reduction in sentencing if you plead guilty. His sentence was to be 14 years, but:
“The law compels a reduction proportionate to the stage at which you indicated your intent to plead guilty, reflecting your acceptance of responsibility and sparing the court and public the burden of a trial. You pleaded guilty at the Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing, having made no admissions in police interview and initially indicated not guilty pleas.”
so Gill gets 10 years and a half years, half to be served before being released on licence.
The judge tried to say that Gill was sentenced for accepting money, not for what he said!
“the charges concern your agreement to accept money, rather than the content of parliamentary and other utterances per se”
Gill was told by the judge it was wrong of him to accept money, whether or not he personally believed what he said, even though it would not then be a bribe:
“It is incumbent upon them [MPs and MEPs] to speak with honesty and conviction, irrespective of whether their views are met with approval or dissent. When you say what someone has paid you to say, you are not speaking with sincerity. If it were your genuine opinion, you would not need to be paid for saying it. Whether or not you believed any of what you said at the behest of Voloshyn and Medvedchuk, allowing money to corrupt your moral compass constitutes a grave betrayal of the trust vested in you by the electorate.”
Comment from Labour Heartlands:
[Labour Affairs do not agree that Gill is a traitor. The policies he was advocating in his speeches were in the interests of Britain, as it is in the interest of the British people to have good relations with Russia. We agree with Labour Heartlands however that double standards were applied. Gill was sentenced because he took money and said things that go against current UK government policy. Those who take money and say things that conform with government policy go unmolested.]
Labour Heartlands:
Gill wasn’t just one corrupt man. He was a glimpse of a much bigger problem, one that strikes at the heart of sovereignty. British politics runs on foreign money. One in four MPs in the last parliament accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups or individuals, totalling over one million pounds. Declassified UK Half of Starmer’s current cabinet has accepted donations from pro-Israel lobbyists, with the total value exceeding £300,000. Declassified UK Trevor Chinn, a prominent pro-Israel lobbyist, gave £50,000 to Starmer’s leadership campaign and has funded eight members of his frontbench. Declassified UK The donations weren’t disclosed until after Starmer had won.
Gulf states have donated £1.7 million to MPs since 2013 for travel and hospitality costs. Action on Armed Violence Saudi Arabia alone gave more than £500,000 to 54 MPs, while Qatar donated over £462,000. Byline Times These are regimes with appalling human rights records, yet MPs queue up for their hospitality and repay the generosity with praise in Parliament.
Then there’s the City of London. Bankers and financial firms have handed Labour the equivalent of £2 million since Starmer launched his charm offensive on big business in 2022. Open Democracy The Conservatives took £11 million from the finance sector between 2019 and 2021, with hedge fund tycoons now responsible for almost 40% of all Tory donations. Open Democracy Labour’s largest-ever donation, £4 million, came from Quadrature Capital, a Cayman Islands hedge fund with shares worth hundreds of millions in fossil fuels, private healthcare, and arms manufacturers. Open Democracy
The double standard is breathtaking. When Russia buys influence, it’s “hybrid warfare” and traitors go to prison. When Israel, Saudi Arabia, or hedge funds registered in tax havens buy our politicians, it’s called “engagement” or “consultancy” or simply “business as usual.”
Labour Affairs 