LONDON — Britain will investigate how hostile states like China and Russia are financially interfering with U.K. democracy and elections, ministers have announced.

Steve Reed, the communities secretary, told MPs that the decision was prompted by the conviction of Nathan Gill — the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, who was jailed after accepting payments to make pro-Russia statements while he was an MEP for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

“The facts are clear,” Reed told MPs on Tuesday, adding: “A British politician took bribes to further the interests of the Russian regime, a regime which forcefully deported vulnerable Ukrainian children and killed a British citizen on British soil using a deadly nerve agent.

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

An “urgent” independent review into foreign financial interference will be run by Phillip Rycroft, the former top official in the Home Office.

Farage’s party — which has a commanding lead in British polls and is challenging the incumbent Labour government — has so far batted away calls to conduct an internal review into past and potential links to Russia, and stressed that Gill was a “bad apple” who betrayed Farage’s trust. The party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, welcomed the announcement in the House of Commons.

China warnings

The move also comes after a series of high-profile warnings of political monitoring and interference by China. Last month, MI5 issued a security alert to MPs that Chinese intelligence officers are attempting to recruit people with access to sensitive information about the British state.

The review, which will be sent to ministers by the end of March, will help inform Britain’s upcoming elections and democracy bill, which Reed confirmed is now expected in the new year. Dan Jarvis, the security minister, added that the review will look to “rigorously test the financial safeguards we currently have in place.”

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee warned Monday that the “current protections within electoral financing law are not adequate” and there are “many gaps which could be exploited by a foreign adversary to covertly channel money to political parties.”

The review will not look at allegations of interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, the government said in a press notice.

Officials said that the work will also examine what role cryptocurrencies have in illicit money being used to target British democracy. POLITICO first reported earlier this month that ministers are considering a ban on crypto donations to political parties.

Asked in the Commons about fears over the use of crypto to fund political parties, Reed said “Cryptocurrency is one of the routes by which dirty money is able to covertly enter British politics in an attempt to influence the outcomes of elections. That is why crypto will be in scope for this review.”