Reform believes in free speech for all! Except you, you, and you

Oh, Reform. Whose leader is so worried about free speech that he compared the UK to the totalitarian dictatorship of North Korea. Farage must be horrified having to look over his shoulder so much, under constant threat of being silenced; maybe that’s why he spends so much time in America. Well, we can rest easy at least knowing Britain has Reform battling tooth and nail for our free speech rights. Clearly the good fight is nigh, and we are on the cusp of a glorious revolution in political liberty. All Reform needs to do now is ban everyone from their events who speaks ill of them, and we’ll be in free-speech heaven. What? They’re already on it? Well, shucks, we should get ahead of the curve and book our tickets for a pilgrimage to Clacton now. 

Of the banned journalists at this year’s Reform conference, the most telling was that of Anna Issac, Guardian City editor. She first broke the story of Farage’s undisclosed, and damningly sketchy, £5m crypto donation prior to the 2024 General election, highlighting a wholly unsurprising hypocrisy at the heart of the party’s free speech commitments. Clearly Issac’s reporting wasn’t without factual basis, given the ongoing Parliamentary probe into the matter. 

Free speech for everyone! Except those we don’t like. And it’s a stance delivered with the subtlety of a heart attack. 

I’ve seen this song-and-dance before, firsthand. Reform’s Leader of Warwickshire County Council, George Finch, visited the University of Warwick back in January, and despite labelling such higher education institutions as “conveyor belt[s] of communism,” he had the right to speak, regardless of the regrettable actions of some on campus who wished to prevent his attendance. Free speech is free speech, after all, and it should go without saying. But he responded only to pre-prepared questions, as if such a senior local politician were being bubble-wrapped from criticism. While Reform couldn’t refuse to admit anyone to the event in question, the principle of clamouring for free speech, but only to a degree that benefits the organisation, is clearly not a foreign concept. As I commented for The Boar at the time, it is evident Reform merges the right to liberated public discourse and the right not to be offended into one politically worrying entity, and this is only worsening.

Reform’s defence for banning around 50 journalists from its 2026 conference is shoddy. Supposedly, only three journalists were denied (though, in fairness, this quote could have been given before the number greatly expanded), and it was on the basis that they had agendas and/or weren’t proper journalists. The first point is a flagrant lack of respect for free speech – not wanting to say something nice about Reform is not grounds for a ban under their own libertarian commitments. The second isn’t much better, particularly for a party that is supposed to be the enemy of the establishment. What is the threshold to be a ‘proper’ journalist? I don’t work for The Times or The Telegraph, nor the BBC or The Financial Times, but by definition I am an opinion journalist, albeit still a humble student one. Such an angle would seem more fitting for one of the big two parties, who would no doubt flaunt it unbothered, but it constitutes a bout of establishment elitism for so-called ‘anti-establishment’ Reform.

But still, the individuals mentioned here were veteran broadcaster Michael Crick, a former Newsnight presenter, and Peter Geoghegan, who has been writing for The Guardian since 2010. Both are textbook examples of ‘proper’ journalists, but you could probably have guessed that. And what the reasons were for the other 47 or so journalists being rejected, well, we can all make a fairly educated guess. 

The big issue here is the trend in behaviour, which only seems to be getting worse, and yet comes at a time when Reform is supposed to be getting serious. Given their Trumpian style, one is left worrying where this would leave free speech if Reform were to somehow reach the executive branch. Are we going to see a governmental war on journalists this side of the pond? Will the only outlet able to provide inside coverage from Number 10 be GB News? There would be some scantily attended press conferences, that’s for sure.

If Reform is to seek government, they need to prove doubters wrong by moving past scandals and flagrant violations of their own stated policy. The censorship of this specific set of journalists isn’t going to stop negative Reform press (we aren’t North Korea, no matter what Farage says), and it serves only as an incredibly obvious example of flagrant hypocrisy, and everyone can see it. If you don’t practice what you preach now, no sensible voter will buy your pre-election pledges, but given the party’s questionable relationship with free speech, maybe that’s for the best.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Z979

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