Former Ukip MEP denies taking money to promote Russian interests | UK Independence party (Ukip)

A former leading member of the group of MPs led by Nigel Farage has denied receiving money as part of a campaign to promote Russian interests.

David Coburn, leader of Ukip in Scotland for four years, was responding after his former colleague Nathan Gill was jailed on charges of taking bribes from an alleged pro-Russian entity.

Coburn, who was a Scottish MP between 2014 and 2019, was named in WhatsApp messages between Gill and former Ukrainian MP Oleg Voloshyn, who is accused of bribery, and was released by prosecutors.

Last Friday, Gill was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison on the grounds that he took bribes to make statements in favor of Russia while he was a member of parliament. A leading member of the Ukip and Brexit party groups, he pleaded guilty to eight bribery charges between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) documents used in Gill’s case show that Gill and Voloshyn discussed how much money should be set aside for Coburn, who is also an MP for the Brexit party that pioneered Reform UK.

The messages were sent in April 2019 before a meeting in the European Parliament of the editorial board of 112 Ukraine, a pro-Russian Ukrainian channel whose members include Gill and Coburn.

Later that day, an argument broke out between Gill and Voloshyn about money Voloshyn had given to Gill to be distributed between Gill and another MP identified as “D” and “David”.

“I’ll see D. in the morning. How much was it for him?” Gill sent the following message to Voloshyn: “$6.50.”

The member of the European Parliament called David, apparently Coburn. This was touched on in other messages between Gill and Voloshyn, who worked for Viktor Medvedchuk, Vladimir Putin’s most important ally in Ukraine in the years before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“We have a big request from you and David,” Voloshyn texted Gill, outlining a “clever idea” that Medvedchuk said he had.

Approached outside a property in France, Coburn reportedly replied “no” when a BBC reporter asked him if he had been paid to give a speech to promote pro-Russian campaigners.

The former MP has not made any public comments since Gill’s incarceration and did not respond to invitations for comment from the Guardian, which has seen no evidence of any wrongdoing by Coburn.

Coburn and another Ukip MP, Jonathan Arnott, visited Ukraine with Gill in October 2018 and made statements to pro-Russian media.

Weeks later, they made the remarks during a debate on Ukraine in the European Parliament after Gill’s speech. Arnott has denied any suggestion that he had links to Russia or was acting in Russia’s interests.