Nathan Gill, 52, pleaded guilty earlier this year to eight counts of bribery between December 2018 and July 2019. Police have estimated that the former leader of Reform in Wales took at least £40,000 (US$53,000) in bribes.

Sentencing him at London’s Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Gill had allowed money to “corrupt his moral compass” when it had been his duty as an elected official to “speak with honesty and conviction”.

“When you say what someone has paid you to say, you are not speaking with sincerity,” the judge said.

Gill was stopped at Manchester Airport in September 2021 as he attempted to travel to Russia, and was charged in February of this year following an investigation.