A petition to launch an inquiry into “Russian influence on UK politics & democracy” has hit a critical milestone. Having tipped over 100,000 signatures, it will now be considered for a debate in Parliament. This could prove to be particularly awkward for Nigel Farage and his Reform Party, given the proof of Russian interference and recent conviction of their former head of Wales:
“Allowing money to corrupt your moral compass constitutes a grave betrayal of the trust vested in you by the electorate”
Ex-leader of Reform UK in Wales Nathan Gill sentenced for taking bribes as part of a pro-Russia influence campaign
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— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) November 21, 2025
Russian interference
The title of the petition is as follows:
Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy
Its wording is incredibly to the point:
We are concerned about reported efforts from Russia to influence democracy in the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere. We believe we must establish the depth and breadth of possible Russian influence campaigns in the UK.
We believe recent events underscore the urgency of this issue.
The “recent events” in this instance are no doubt the conviction of Nathan Gill. As we reported earlier this month, Labour responded by demanding that Reform investigate themselves:
It’s now 24 hours since Nigel Farage’s man in Wales was sent down for 10+ years for taking pro-Russian bribes.
Why won’t Farage allow an independent investigation to root out any pro-Russian links in Reform? What has he got to hide? pic.twitter.com/lOgiGDCexu
— Labour Press (@labourpress) November 22, 2025
As we said at the time, if Labour were serious about this, they’d launch an investigation themselves. Oddly, Labour tried to score points when Farage made the same point:
Farage says he can’t investigate pro-Russian links in Reform because he doesn’t “have a police force”.
You really need to start thinking of better excuses @Nigel_Farage – or the public will think you’re hiding something. pic.twitter.com/jjaABLnM9M
— Labour Press (@labourpress) November 24, 2025
If nothing else, this petition could force Labour to shit or get off the pot.
Russia-gate
Over the past decade, there has definitely been a tendency for establishment centrists to paint Russia as the sole reason for our problems. This manifested most in the aftermath of Trump’s first election and the EU Referendum.
In the case of the US election, Hillary Clinton suffered because she was the living embodiment of the establishment at a moment when voters turned against the failing status quo. In the case of Brexit, we had a situation in which Brexiteers successfully managed to pin the failings of neoliberal Britain on the EU (it’s also worth noting the campaign to leave the EU had been growing as a movement for decades; the campaign to remain didn’t get serious until the week after the referendum).
We’re not suggesting Russia had no influence on these pivotal world events, but suggesting Vladimir Putin is solely responsible for our ills prevents us from identifying and solving the many other issues which are driving political extremism — chief among them spiralling inequality.
Solidarity
While we may not always agree with the centrists about the best way of addressing these topics, we can all agree it would be fun to watch Farage squirm in a debate on Russian interference. That is if he turns up, of course. As we all know, the guy would seemingly rather be anywhere but at work.
Featured image via Heute
