{"id":395468,"date":"2025-09-03T20:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T20:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/395468\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T20:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T20:46:14","slug":"farage-to-speak-to-nottinghamshire-reform-council-leader-over-press-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/395468\/","title":{"rendered":"Farage to speak to Nottinghamshire Reform council leader over press ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan MartinBBC News, East Midlands and<\/p>\n

Nomia IqbalBBC North America Correspondent<\/p>\n

\"ReutersReuters<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage said he would speak to council leader Mick Barton at Reform’s party conference on Friday<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage has said he will “have a little chat” with the leader of a Reform UK council over a decision to ban contact with reporters from a local newspaper.<\/p>\n

Last week, Nottinghamshire County Council told the BBC<\/a> that Mick Barton had banned the Nottingham Post and its online arm, Nottinghamshire Live, from speaking to him and other councillors “with immediate effect”.<\/p>\n

It followed a disagreement over a story the publication ran about local government reorganisation, though Barton later said the ban applied only to him personally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Farage, the national leader of Reform UK, has now said he will intervene in the row.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mick Barton said the recent banning of the Nottingham Post only applied to council press releases, invitations to events and interviews with him <\/p>\n

Farage is currently in Washington, D.C, and on Wednesday spoke to Congress about free speech issues in the UK.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, the BBC asked Farage why Barton had banned Nottinghamshire Live reporters.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know. I’m going to see him [Barton] at the [Reform UK] conference this Friday and have a chat with him,” Farage said.<\/p>\n

When asked if he was happy about the ban, Farage added: “He obviously thinks they’re bad actors, but I think I’ve got a good history of being a peacemaker in these situations.”<\/p>\n

When asked if Barton was “in trouble”, Farage added: “No, no, I am a very good peacemaker and I’ve seen all this before. <\/p>\n

“I’ve been in and out of politics for 30 years, I have seen these disputes before, and we need to find a solution.”<\/p>\n

He did not answer when asked if the county council ban would be lifted.<\/p>\n

Barton previously said: “We haven’t got a problem, I’ve not got a problem, I’m being professional and I hope the Notts Post become professional.<\/p>\n

“The ban still stands until they come and apologise. They need to pick the phone up and speak to me.”<\/p>\n

He added that he had “never stopped” his councillors from speaking to journalists at the publication.<\/p>\n

Thousands sign petition<\/p>\n

The ban, which included BBC-funded journalists based at the title as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Service, had been criticised by Nottinghamshire Live editor Natalie Fahy.<\/p>\n

Ms Fahy attempted to hand Barton a copy of the Nottingham Post at the start of the meeting on Tuesday, which he refused to accept. <\/p>\n

Ms Fahy told the BBC, on Wednesday, that the dispute had “really blown up”.<\/p>\n

“I’m really glad everyone is talking about it because it’s such an important issue,” she said. <\/p>\n

“A lot of national journalists are concerned the same thing could happen to them with Reform.<\/p>\n

“I want to get back to basics. I want to resolve this amicably so we can get on with our jobs \u2013 which includes finding out how council tax money is spent.<\/p>\n

“Mick has to be reasonable and understand the role of the local press in holding councils to account.”<\/p>\n

According to the Post, an article written by its agenda editor<\/a> Oliver Pridmore prompted the ban.<\/p>\n

The piece – about ongoing discussions over the reorganisation of local government – included a claim that two Reform UK councillors said at a public surgery they could be suspended from their county council group if they did not vote for Barton’s preferred model.<\/p>\n

Mr Pridmore attended the meeting and afterwards said: “We haven’t got anything to apologise for, and we stand by the coverage we produced. <\/p>\n

“It’s the exact same coverage we provide on any council in our patch.”<\/p>\n

A petition created by the publication, called Reform: Stop hiding from press scrutiny, has gained more than 26,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

Barton was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan MartinBBC News, East Midlands and Nomia IqbalBBC North America Correspondent Reuters Nigel Farage said he would speak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-395468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115142327403771538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}