Keir Starmer’s brutal ‘festive recommendation’ to Reform UK has MPs in stitches at PMQs

Opening his final PMQs of 2025, Keir Starmer wished a Merry Christmas to MPs, parliamentary staff and their families in Westminster – before turning to Nigel Farage’s party

Keir Starmer has made a brutal Christmas joke about Reform UK – mocking the party’s ex-leader in Wales having taken Russian bribes.

Opening his final PMQs of 2025, the Prime Minister wished a Merry Christmas to MPs, parliamentary staff and their families in Westminster before turning to Nigel Farage’s party.

In a lively moment in the Commons, Mr Starmer then said: “A little festive advice to those in Reform. If mysterious men from the East appear bearing gifts, this time report it to the police.”

MPs erupted into laughter across the chamber, including Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice, who started shouting in a particularly animated way. Mr Farage, who is in a strop about not getting to speak enough in PMQs, was not sitting with his fellow MPs but was seen warily shaking his head in the public gallery.

READ MORE: Ex-Reform UK politician’s Russian bribe case triggers foreign interference probe

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It comes after Nathan Gill, Reform’s ex-leader in Wales, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison last month for taking bribes to spout pro-Russia lines in interviews and speeches in the European Parliament.

Gill was an MEP for Ukip and the Brexit Party, both led by Mr Farage, from 2014 to 2020, before becoming Reform’s leader in Wales in 2021. He quit after failing to win a seat in the 2021 Senedd election.

Gill, 52, of Anglesey, North Wales, was paid at least £40,000 by former Ukrainian MP Oleg Voloshyn, who was described as a “pawn” of the Russian security services by the US Government.

Yesterday, Mr Starmer ordered a probe into foreign financial interference in British politics after Gill was jailed. Communities Secretary Steve Reed said the case was a “stain on our democracy” as he set out plans for an independent probe.

Mr Reed told MPs: “An elected politician took bribes to parrot the lies of a hostile state responsible for the death of Dawn Sturgess, a British citizen on British soil. He took the side of those responsible for invading a sovereign European state and he was prosecuted while Putin’s military targeted the men, women and children of Ukraine.

“At the time he sat as a member of the European Parliament, supposedly representing the British people and went on to become a senior leader of a UK political party.”

He added: “This conduct is a stain on our democracy. The independent review will work to remove that stain.”

Mr Farage last month ruled out investigating Russian influences in his party as he said Reform are “not a police force”. But he welcomed the idea of a UK-wide probe, saying: “I think that’s right, and I think there are doubts on all sides right at the moment, so I think that would be a good thing to do.”