One of Nigel Farage’s Reform MPs accepted £6,000 from a waste firm boss who did jail time over an employee’s death.
Only weeks ago, Reform UK’s leader claimed his party was on the side of working people. But we can reveal Sarah Pochin accepted the cash from a twice-jailed businessman handed an eight-month sentence after his employee was killed. Jonathan Gaskell was imprisoned in 2018 following the death of Zbigniew Galka, crushed while clearing a machine blockage.
It was not the first time Gaskell, 54, had been in trouble with the law – he was locked up in 2013 for paying to have driving licence points wiped in a scam. Ex-magistrate Mrs Pochin, a staunch critic of the government’s move to strengthen employee rights, last month accepted the donation from him.
Gaskell was sentenced after admitting breaching health and safety law over Mr Galka’s death in 2010. His firm, which also pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety Act, was fined £700,000, later reduced to £650,000. Polish national Mr Galka, 39, endured haemorrhaging, shock and severe traumatic injury and died on his way to hospital. He was working at Gaskells Waste Services in Bootle, Liverpool.
Mr Galka died trying to mend a machine compressing waste into small bales, a joint Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Merseyside Police probe found, the BBC reported. The machine allowed a worker to enter while it was operating but a safety system had been disabled two months earlier, the HSE said.
The probe found Gaskell’s (North West) Ltd, ordered to pay about £100,000 in costs, operated the machine in a dangerous manner for up to five years after Mr Galka died.
Mrs Pochin boasted last year it was an honour to serve a “community of hard-working people who just want fairness”. By contrast, her donor Gaskell was locked up for illegally paying to have points removed from his licence. Gaskell was handed a four-month prison sentence at Preston Crown Court in 2013. He was reportedly among customers of a corrupt court official said to have helped dozens of people in a driving points racket.
Runcorn and Helsby MP Mrs Pochin’s registered interests shows she accepted the support from Gaskell in May. The entry reads: “Donation to support the Parliamentary Office of Sarah Pochin MP”.
Earlier this month, Mrs Pochin came under fire when she made a clumsy attempt to highlight domestic violence against women during the World Cup. In a video, the MP suggested England should win more matches at the World Cup to reduce domestic violence.
But charity Refuge said: “This is not only misleading, but could allow perpetrators to evade accountability. We must be clear: football is never an excuse for domestic abuse, and perpetrators cannot continue to be shielded by the myth that football directly causes abuse.”
And in September last year, Mrs Pochin — Reform’s first female MP — attacked the government’s workers’ rights bill. She wrote on X: “The so-called Workers’ Rights Bill is nothing more than a jobs killer.
“The left will dress it up as support for employees, but the reality is very different. By making it harder and riskier for businesses to hire, it will reduce opportunities, not create them. Fewer jobs, weaker growth, and yet more damage to our already struggling economy.” The government’s Employment Rights Act gained Royal assent last year.
Former Tory councillor Mrs Pochin won her seat in Parliament in a by-election in May last year by just six votes. Gaskell, who is understood to have rebuilt his life since going to prison, was contacted for comment.
Reform said: “The donation was properly declared under House of Commons rules and was made to support Sarah’s work as a local MP. Mr Gaskell is a permissible donor, and any matters covered under spent convictions were not relevant.”
Asked whether Mrs Pochin was aware of Gaskell’s two convictions before accepting the donation, the party did not provide an answer.