Phil Brickell
MP for Bolton West · Labour · United Kingdom
“The Prime Minister will not need reminding about Arsenal’s success in the premier league last season and my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham) will not want reminding that Everton, unfortunately for him, came 13th, but what neither of them might know is that the UK finished 20th in the corruption perceptions index,…”
“Westhoughton is home to a fantastic local veterans charity called the Darren Deady Foundation. Darren bravely served in the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, but, sadly, died following injuries he sustained on the frontline in Afghanistan. I had the privilege of visiting the foundation back in April.”
“I thank the Minister for her statement and I pay tribute to Philip Rycroft, who, as I am sure colleagues across the House will agree, is an exceptional public servant.”
“Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), what assurances can the Minister provide to me that the measures the Government are introducing will prevent people—such as George Cottrell, convicted in the US of wire fraud, who we know has provided thousands of pounds-worth of benefits; or Ben Delo, who has been convicted for flouting American anti-mo…”
“Questions have also emerged about his lobbying the Bank of England for crypto-friendly policies, having himself invested £215,000 into bitcoin company Stack BTC, alongside former Conservative Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.”
“I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax. This week, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) declared that he is earning an extraordinary £22,500 per hour working for a gold bullion dealer.”
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“I was recently contacted by one of my constituents regarding a four-month delay to her daughter’s provisional driving licence application, relating to her type 1 diabetes diagnosis. My constituent’s application remains outstanding. She has been unable to obtain an update from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency or any timescale for the conclusion of her application. My constituent’s mental health is now being affected by the delay, as she has lost her driving instructor and feels as though she has been treated differently due to her diagnosis. Will the Leader of the House allow for a debate in Government time to discuss the important issue of delays in the DVLA system, in particular for individuals with disabilities and health conditions?”
“Almost 4,000 people with jobs in my Bolton West constituency still need universal credit to cope with the cost of living. Heating, water and food bills have been stubbornly high. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that families in my constituency get the support they need to pay the bills?”
“On the security of the base, does my hon. Friend recall the visit to Washington DC that I think we both went on last year as members of the Foreign Affairs Committee? We spoke to many American interlocutors, including State Department officials. Over the course of an entire week in the US capital, not a single US interlocutor disagreed with or opposed the deal before us.”
“It is clear to me, from the contributions we have heard today, that it is imperative for the Government to change the law, to protect the individuals and animals that are so detrimentally impacted by fireworks.”
“My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech about the need for change in the law, and the impact on humans and animals. One of my constituents got in touch with me to talk about the massive detrimental impact that the irresponsible launching of fireworks had during bonfire night weekend. She talked about how the next day her horses were spinning around in their stables and sweating profusely, displaying flehmen responses and windsucking on doors. When she spoke to the Greater Manchester police, they essentially said in writing that the lack of legislation meant that they could not act. To quote my constituent, it was obvious from speaking to “so many different professionals” that all they could really say was that “their hands are tied”.”
“The truth of the matter is that there is actually a lot of false information flying around—does the Minister agree? In Bolton, we are very much looking forward to having local elections in May. Can the Minister confirm that that has always been the case, as it has been in the other nine boroughs in Greater Manchester, and that words to the opposite effect are simply false information?”
“As a proud member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, I thank the Foreign Secretary for her visit to our Marines at Camp Viking in Norway, and for her unequivocal stance in support of collective security with NATO at its heart. I welcome the Rycroft review of foreign interference in our politics. In the context of NATO and Arctic security, does the Foreign Secretary agree it is vital that we get to the bottom of the role that Russian money plays in trying to subvert our public discourse on these hugely important issues?”
“On that point, two tankers from the shadow fleet were scheduled to go through the channel earlier today. The shadow fleet exists solely to keep money flowing to the Kremlin, while threatening maritime safety and environmental security. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the UK Government should be mindful of other aspects relevant to this debate as we continue to pursue the shadow fleet that allows Putin to wage his unwarranted and unlawful invasion?”
“My hon. Friend is a tireless champion for the UK-Ukraine relationship, including through the 100-year partnership. Does he agree that it is worth commending the Government for the action that has been taken in the past month on issuing a licence through the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation to move the £2.5 billion of Chelsea football club proceeds that have remained frozen for four years now? That money could be used to support the victims of conflict, including in Ukraine. Will he join me in calling on the Government to move faster on unlocking the more than £700,000 of assets that belong to Petr Aven, one of Putin’s closest oligarch friends? They have been frozen for quite some time now by the National Crime Agency and could also be used to support the Ukrainian people.”
“They are crying out for certainty, which is why in my letters to the OfS chief executive and the Education Secretary I have called for urgent, transparent action—”
“How many students were left exposed while the Office for Students hesitated? The delay is indefensible. The OfS’s condition E governance requirements exist to protect students and ensure public confidence in the sector, yet these allegations raise questions about whether governing bodies were aware of, or fully understood, commercial arrangements that appear to benefit insiders at the expense of the institution. When millions of pounds are potentially being paid out in opaque deals, we must ask: were students served, or were they being treated as a revenue stream to be monetised without proper oversight? People across Bolton are watching events at the university unfold, wondering out loud what the regulator is doing and when it will act.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Christopher. I will focus on recent goings-on at my local institution, the University of Greater Manchester, where over the past year there have been credible, detailed and publicly available allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption involving senior executives and the university’s Centre for Islamic Finance. Greater Manchester police’s major incident team has investigated. The first detailed reports emerged in February 2025, but it was only in December that the Office for Students finally confirmed that it was opening an investigation into governance at the university. Students, staff and taxpayers are all entitled to ask why it took 10 months. Why did it take a police investigation to trigger regulatory action, and why did that happen six months later?”
“Can the Minister confirm that the taskforce will look at the effectiveness of the OfS as the regulator for the sector in driving better student outcomes and preventing student harm?”
“For years, solicitor Andrew Milne has been bullying, threatening and harassing leaseholders, including my Horwich constituents, into buying freeholds off him at massively inflated prices—sometimes as much as £25,000—yet the Solicitors Regulation Authority has done nothing to stop his outrageous behaviour, which has caused immeasurable pain and suffering to my constituents. Homeowners in Bolton West should not have to live in fear of being ripped off by crooked lawyers, so will the Leader of the House set aside Government time for a debate on the lack of action by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in cracking down on lawyers like Milne, who continue to act with impunity?”
“Yet since the highly disputed parliamentary election of 26 October 2024, that is exactly what we have seen: all branches of government and state institutions now captured by Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Georgian Dream party; civic space crushed; independent media and civil society organisations targeted under a new foreign agent law—legislation that comes straight out of the Kremlin playbook; and peaceful protests met time and again with violence. The UK has rightly sanctioned some individuals responsible for violent attacks on journalists and protesters, and that is very much welcome, but as the Minister knows, I do not feel it is enough. The omissions are glaring. Most notably, the UK has failed to sanction Bidzina Ivanishvili, the individual widely regarded as exercising decisive influence over Georgia’s political direction.”
“I want to focus on two particular threats: first, what I see as the inconsistent and inadequate use of Magnitsky sanctions against serious human rights abusers, particularly in Georgia and Hong Kong; and secondly, the failure to enforce sanctions properly, allowing evasion, secrecy and professional enablers to undermine the entire regime. Let me begin with Georgia, because Georgia is a country that should be moving closer to Europe, not sliding backwards into authoritarianism for the benefit of Moscow.”
“Effective sanctions regimes for human rights violations and corruption speak to who we are as a nation—a nation that stands up for the rule of law, that respects international law and that says, “Wherever and whoever you are, if you persecute individuals, plunder your country’s resources or embezzle from your own people, there will be consequences.” The reason we are having this debate today to my mind is not to call for some shiny new instrument to hold the world’s criminals and the corrupt to account; rather it is to call for better use of the world-leading tools that we already have to deny the human rights abusers and kleptocrats access to our financial system, professional services and property market.”
“I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for securing this important debate and I am pleased to see the Minister in his place. He has already heard plenty from colleagues in the Chamber on sanctions, and I hope that today’s debate will provide further food for thought.”
“I look forward to the update on this issue promised earlier this year in the Government’s new anti-corruption strategy, but can the Minister provide any further information on timelines—”
“We must tackle head-on the scourge of corporate secrecy in offshore financial centres linked to the UK. If we are to ensure that our sanctions bite as much as possible, there is an urgent need for those overseas territories that continue to drag their feet—including the British Virgin Islands—to finally adopt fully public registers of beneficial ownership, as they have promised time and again but failed to deliver. As an interim step, the Minister will agree that individuals with a legitimate interest, including journalists and civil society, must have meaningful access to beneficial ownership information. Without that transparency, asset freezes cannot be enforced effectively.”
“That is a rounding error compared with the scale of wealth at stake, and it is simply not a credible deterrent. All the while, there have been no breaches of Magnitsky sanctions in the past year. This issue is acute in the British overseas territories, where low policing capacity and high financial secrecy create ideal conditions for sanctions evasion. There have been some laudable efforts in the OTs to enforce sanctions. However, I have too often been made aware of civil society organisations submitting detailed evidence of Magnitsky sanctions breaches in the overseas territories but receiving no meaningful response at all from those jurisdictions. Will the Minister assure me today that he will ensure that British overseas territories that receive such detailed allegations will act on them?”
“Friend the Member for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell) outlined forensically, if the Opposition are serious about standing by Ukraine, they cannot have him as their top Law Officer, serving in the other place and attending shadow Cabinet meetings. It is simply incredible. Does the Minister agree that Lord Wolfson’s position in the shadow Cabinet and attendance of those meetings is now completely untenable? The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has concluded that it is “almost certain” that UK lawyers, estate agents and property service firms have helped clients evade asset freezes. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Dorset (Lloyd Hatton) outlined, in the past year OFSI has imposed just three fines for breaches of the UK’s sanctions regime, totalling just over £622,000.”
“We now have a vast and complex sanctions architecture—Magnitsky sanctions, Russia sanctions and anti-corruption sanctions. Since Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine, we have had a massive boost in our own sanctions capacity and seen a huge undertaking in the private sector to keep up, yet enforcement in the UK remains worryingly weak. We know that sanctions are being evaded. We heard earlier about Roman Abramovich reportedly transferring his UK property empire to his children just weeks before being sanctioned—the very same individual who is now being represented by the Conservative shadow Attorney General over a dispute with the Jersey Government on the source of his wealth. As my hon.”
“That brings me to a wider point. We are entering a period in which the United States cannot always be relied on to apply evidence-based sanctions. In that context, the UK cannot simply wait for Washington to lead. We must be prepared to act where the United States will not. We should also not be afraid, as critical friends, to point out where the US gets it wrong. I asked the Minister earlier this week at the Foreign Affairs Committee for his response to Trump’s sanctioning of two British citizens for seeking to, as Secretary Rubio sees it, “coerce” American tech platforms into suppressing free speech. Does the Minister agree that that is dangerous nonsense? That brings me to my second theme: enforcement. Increasing designations alone is not enough. Sanctions without enforcement are no sanction at all; they are just suggestions.”
“As a British national, a publisher and a peaceful advocate of democracy, Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned for years for exercising rights that we regard in this place as fundamental. He now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars under a law designed to silence free speech, not to deliver justice. Of course, I welcomed the Foreign Secretary’s strong condemnation of Jimmy Lai’s sham trial last month, but words alone do not protect political prisoners. If Magnitsky sanctions are to retain any credibility, they must be used against those responsible for the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and for the persecution of individuals such as Jimmy Lai. That includes officials who designed, implemented and enforced the national security law and those who have overseen its use to crush free expression and political participation.”
“Let me turn to Hong Kong and the ongoing repression there, which is of keen interest to me and the valued community of Hongkongers across my Bolton West constituency. The dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms is unacceptable. Since the imposition of the national security law, we have seen the systematic criminalisation of dissent: independent media shut down, civil society organisations dissolved, elected opposition figures jailed, and fundamental freedoms erased in all but name. This is textbook human rights abuse. The case of Jimmy Lai, who has already been mentioned, symbolises that injustice—a point I was reminded of by constituents of mine who used to work with him back in Hong Kong.”
“I know the Minister will be unable to comment on individual cases, but can he at least confirm that Ivanishvili’s supposed status as too big to fail due to his alleged personal importance to the Georgian economy does not preclude him from being sanctioned by this country? I will come to the United States later, but our allies across the Atlantic sanctioned Ivanishvili on 27 December 2024 for undermining democratic processes on behalf of, or for the benefit of, Russia. I certainly do not suggest that we follow the US in every aspect of foreign policy, but it is correct in applying that designation. Sanctioning cronies and underlings can make an impact, but let us be clear that the fish rots from the head. My fear is that our silence on Ivanishvili sends the wrong message to would-be kleptocrats around the world.”
“My hon. Friend is quite right about the spheres of influence that Russia seeks to exert across central and eastern Europe. Ivanishvili could be sanctioned under any number of our regimes—Magnitsky, global anti-corruption or even the Russian sanctions regime given his reported links to the Kremlin and his blatant kowtowing to Moscow. Just this morning, I was made aware that Georgian Dream has increased state financing for the Kulevi oil refinery, which Reuters has reported received its first shipment of Russian oil last October. The refinery itself is linked to Vladimir Alekseev, first deputy chief of Russia’s GRU. That seems to be an obvious route for sanctions violations, and I hope it will be added to Ivanishvili’s rap sheet.”
“If the UK wants to be a global champion of human rights, it must stop being a safe haven for those who abuse them and start ensuring that sanctions mean something on paper and in practice.”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Transparency is the name of the game here, so will the Minister confirm whether his Department has looked at publishing comprehensive data on assets frozen within UK jurisdictions, broken down by asset class, including assets held by individuals, state- owned enterprises and states themselves? The reason I ask is simple: Parliament cannot assess the effectiveness of our regimes if it cannot see the full picture. Let me end with this. Magnitsky sanctions are one of the most powerful tools we have to defend human rights, but they work only if they are used consistently, enforced rigorously and connected clearly to accountability and reparations.”
“The current situation is not conducive to fulfilling the Government’s manifesto pledge, which I proudly stood on in 2024, to tackle gambling harm, which is sadly a lived reality for far too many families in Bolton and Greater Manchester as a whole.”
“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) on securing this debate and on her campaigning on this issue over the years. That includes this week’s letter to the Prime Minister, which had nearly 300 signatories and which she co-ordinated. She was quite right to say that our high streets are being hollowed out by a surge of betting shops, with local people left seemingly powerless. It seems to me that this issue should sit squarely with this Labour Government’s Pride in Place programme. I am not suggesting that we should have no betting shops—I recognise that the industry provides jobs and tax revenue—but local to where I am, there are three betting shops within walking distance of my office in Horwich, a town of fewer than 20,000 people, and there are two more nearby in Westhoughton town centre.”
“While acknowledging the issue is always the first step, I know that the Minister, as a former councillor himself, will recognise it is no good leaving councils powerless to tackle the physical concentration of gambling premises on our high streets. If we are serious about reducing gambling harm, we must accelerate reform. Our high streets should offer opportunity, not addiction; our laws should protect people, not profits.”
“According to the Government’s gambling-related harms evidence review, the north-west has some of the highest rates of at-risk gambling in England, with around 4.4% of adults experiencing elevated risk. Even more worrying is the fact that the north-west has one of the highest proportions of people harmed by someone else’s gambling—partners, children, parents and friends all pay the price. I welcome the steps already taken by the Government. Frankly, the introduction of the statutory gambling levy to raise around £100 million a year for research, prevention and treatment is the least that the industry could do.”
“As we have already heard many times in this debate, the clustering of betting shops remains a serious and unresolved problem, particularly in deprived communities. I received assurances from the gambling Minister last year that cumulative impact assessments on gambling licensing will be introduced to strengthen councils’ ability to influence the density of gambling outlets, but this measure is pending parliamentary time—that much-dreaded phrase. I urge the Minister not to let this important measure get crowded out. It is a new year, and with new years come new year’s resolutions. How about a resolution to prioritise addressing what is a far too liberal regime for managing gambling harms? We know that where gambling outlets cluster, harm increases, from debt and mental ill health to family breakdown and homelessness.”
“The hon. Member makes a valid point. We see that on high streets in my constituency time and time again, all too often, in the context of vape shops. As an aside, we all know that gambling today is no longer confined to a once-a-week trip to the bookies; it is on people’s phones, in their pockets and available 24 hours a day. Online slots are among the highest-risk products, as they are fast, repetitive and designed to encourage long sessions and binge play. I commend the Government on the introduction of stake limits for online slots. Those limits matter, because harm increasingly happens not just on the high street, but on our phones, anywhere and at any time. Let me go back to the high street.”
“I want to pay tribute to my constituent, Alex Davies, who sadly passed away last November, the day after his 50th birthday, two years after his glioblastoma diagnosis. He is survived by his wife Emma and their two daughters. Alex volunteered to have his brain tissue frozen after two surgeries, for ongoing research at the Christie hospital in Manchester. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s national cancer plan should include more and better-used funding for research and more clinical trials, particularly for poorly understood cancers such as glioblastoma on which she has campaigned tenaciously over many years?”
“My constituents do not mourn the removal of Nicolás Maduro, who oversaw the violent repression of his people, a fraudulent presidential election and horrific human rights abuses for many years, but they are alarmed about the unilateral regime change sought by the Trump Administration in order to access Venezuelan oil resources. Two wrongs do not make a right. What measures is the Foreign Secretary taking to support Opposition leaders, including 2025 Nobel prize winner, María Corina Machado?”
“As a former Erasmus student, I congratulate the Paymaster General on the steely resolve, the pragmatism and the significant progress he has been able to achieve. Only a few weeks ago, two fellow Erasmus students from the UK who I studied with in Germany were in this place. I was with them for the first time in 13 years, and they have messaged me today to congratulate the Government. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is most important to deliver on the concrete commitments agreed with our EU partners at the May summit, as opposed to heeding Lib Dem Members’ siren calls about a supposedly bespoke customs union?”
“My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech and giving an extensive list of recommendations to the Government. He talked earlier about defibrillators. There is an important point about access to defibrillators and where they are sited in constituencies. Does he agree that it is also important to ensure that those who need to use defibrillators have the training, knowledge and skillset to confidently do so in a safe manner?”
“The hon. Member is making an important point about young children in schools. Last month, Joshua, Leyla and Elizabeth from St George’s primary school in my constituency wrote to me about their campaign to promote sustainable palm oil labelling. They are carrying on a fine tradition in Bolton, where one of the first Fairtrade shops in the country, Justicia, opened in 1985. Does the hon. Member agree with Joshua, Leyla, Elizabeth and myself that sustainable palm oil labelling is crucial for informing consumers and promoting ethical businesses, alongside greater Fairtrade initiatives?”
“That followed the commission’s investigation into Johnson’s Downing Street refurbishment, its fining of the “Vote Leave” campaign for breaking spending limits in the run-up to the 2016 referendum, and a number of donation scandals involving Russian-linked individuals. Political financing is a cross-party issue, but it should be this Labour Government who restore Electoral Commission independence, ensuring it can fulfil its obligations in the service of the British people. Across Europe, we are seeing active attempts by hostile states to manipulate elections. Britain must not be complacent. We must build a system that is resilient, transparent and modern. Foreign interference succeeds only where democracies are asleep at the wheel. Britain cannot afford to be one of them.”
“Member for Clacton is not here to explain the conduct of his right-hand man. It is clear to me that Reform wants nothing more than to strip back the vital safeguards protecting our democracy from the long hand of dictators such as Vladimir Putin. Let us not forget, as has been mentioned, how the hon. Member for Clacton described Putin as a man whom he “admires”. That is one of many reasons why we need to ensure that the forthcoming elections Bill guarantees the independence of the Electoral Commission. If we are to have a genuinely independent electoral regulator, we need the commission to be free from ministerial direction, free from political pressure and properly resourced. It was Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government that stripped the Electoral Commission of its independence in the Elections Act 2022.”
“Cottrell’s unlimited company, Geostrategy International, pumps out dubious polling and Reform UK talking points, but it does not file accounts or publish its clients. It is not a member of the relevant trade body and so is not signed up to the polling industry’s ethical codes. It claims to have offices in London, Montenegro, Switzerland and the US, where it is registered in the secrecy jurisdiction of Delaware. Companies with such little transparency should simply not be able to flood money into our politics, yet they seemingly could do so at the drop of a hat. Given that Cottrell has been accused of illegally financing a political party in Montenegro—accusations that he denies—I am deeply concerned about his proximity to Members of this House. It is a great shame that the hon.”
“Our focus has been on looking at misinformation and disinformation, and how it is spread like a cancer by those who wish to undermine our institutions. While there, several local politicians and officials raised with me their concerns about British national George Cottrell, a well-known figure in the crypto world. Back in 2016, Cottrell was indicted in the US on 21 counts for crimes including money laundering, fraud and blackmail. He served eight months in prison for wire fraud after being caught in an FBI sting offering his services to undercover agents posing as drug traffickers. He is currently being investigated for his tax affairs by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. He was once described by the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) as being “like a son”.”
“On political donations, the Government’s July elections policy statement set out important measures to limit foreign interference. That work is welcome, but we must go further. As a former financial crime compliance officer, let me be crystal clear: we should ban cryptocurrency donations outright. Crypto is the perfect vehicle for covert foreign funding—fast, opaque and hard to trace. In my mind, there is no democratic justification for allowing it. It is a solution in search of a problem. There is only one reason why political parties would encourage donations in crypto: to conceal their origin. I refer Members to recent reporting that Reform UK—I notice it is unrepresented in the Chamber today—became the first party to start taking such donations. I have recently returned from a visit to Montenegro with the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
“This should be the final warning that we need mandatory transparency for all lobbying activity; stronger revolving-door rules, so that privileged access cannot be immediately turned into private profit; and a modern foreign influence registration scheme that brings covert activity into the daylight, including activity linked to China. The anti-corruption strategy confirms that the Government will keep the transparency of lobbying under review, including considering recommendations from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. That work must lead to concrete reform, not another cycle of scandal and regret. Influence without transparency is a security vulnerability. As the fake AI investor case shows, hostile states can exploit vulnerabilities that we leave open.”
“Putin’s coterie of cronies is exploiting our democracy, using useful idiots along the way to amplify its messages and undermine our institutions, yet Reform has the audacity to claim to be the party for patriots. It is nothing of the sort. On lobbying, our regime is desperately in need of reform. Nothing shows the need for urgency more severely than the recent scandal involving an undercover reporter from Democracy for Sale posing as a Chinese AI investor, who gained access to political events, MPs and decision makers with seemingly no meaningful checks. The reporter was not who he claimed to be, yet he got far too close to the heart of our democracy.”
“Medvedchuk is known in Ukraine as “the grey cardinal”, in a nod to his low profile and closeness to the Kremlin, and Vladimir Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter. Let us also remember that Medvedchuk flew to Moscow the day after his meeting with Gill to boast, in a one-to-one meeting with Putin himself, about the extent of Russia’s influence operation among western politicians, and that the Medvedchuk-Putin meeting was then broadcast on Russian television. Medvedchuk and Voloshyn’s work was a clear influence operation to spread Kremlin narratives, undermine western support for Ukraine and subvert our democracy by paying a British politician to parrot their lines. Gill, Voloshyn, Medvedchuk, Putin—there is a straight line from a former Reform UK politician to the Kremlin.”
“I take no pleasure in mentioning Nathan Gill, but I have a duty to be candid, honest and frank with Members of this House, so let us not forget that Mr Gill was paid bribes by Oleg Voloshyn—to parrot “meticulously scripted” Kremlin lines in Brussels, according to Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb’s sentencing remarks—and that Voloshyn, Gill’s handler, is a former Ukrainian MP whom we sanctioned in March 2023 for “using his position of influence to promote…the spreading of disinformation and pro-Russian narratives which support Russia’s actions in Ukraine.” Let us remember that Nathan Gill even hosted Oleg Voloshyn and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk in the European Parliament, supposedly to talk about free speech in Ukraine.”