on media


Woeful media scrutiny of Reform must end now


Media should say what the party and its wealthy supporters really stand for, says Raymond Snoddy


Farage was turned into a national T


he future of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after his refusal to step down following Labour’s


disastrous showing in the local and regional elections will continue to rumble on across the summer. The party lost 1,496 seats, almost matched by Reform UK’s 1,451 gains. Inevitably, the list of successful Reform candidates provided new insights on Reform’s vetting of applicants. Apart from the usual holocaust deniers and wife beaters, one had suggested that Nigerians should be melted down to fix potholes, another apparently cannot be traced and may have been AI generated, while Welsh Senedd member Joshua Kim, a migrant from South Korea, railed against the influx of migrants to the UK. The role of the media in at least


enabling such a dramatic change to Great Britain’s political landscape is a serious issue. To what extent did the UK media help to create Nigel Farage in the way the US media chased ratings rather than questioning Donald Trump? In Britain, was there adequate media


scrutiny of Farage, what he stands for and his finances? Above all, what should the media do now when Reform not only has 1,453 councillors – at least for now – controls more than 20 councils and is consistently ahead in the opinion polls, albeit it in a declining lead? There is little doubt the media in the


UK, in particular the BBC, helped to create Farage in the way that Trump was allowed to manipulate the media in America.


personality with the help of at least 38 appearances on BBC Question Time – a tradition now being maintained by frequent invitations for the unelected Zia Yusuf, who styles himself as Reform’s shadow home secretary. There is little doubt there was


inadequate scrutiny of what should have been a major scandal that broke days before election. There has always been a lack of


curiosity about who actually paid for Farage’s £800,000 house in his Clacton constituency. Then it was revealed that, just before standing for parliament, Farage had accepted £5 million from Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, who has also given Reform UK many millions. Farage is now under investigation by the parliamentary standards authorities for not declaring the gift. The right-wing press, which raged


against Sir Keir accepting £18,000 for glasses and suits and Angela Rayner underpaying £40,000 in stamp duty, was silent about Farage and the £5 million. The issue was properly tackled by the BBC’s Today programme, but only the morning after the vote. The Reform leader was also able to


hold up stories in the Daily Mail and The Sun saying that the 200,000th small boat to cross the Channel was about to arrive. Little mention that the figure covered nine years, that in the past year numbers were down by 42 per cent or that the crisis was created by Brexit – the very thing Farage campaigned for. The electoral success of Reform and


Farage’s claim he could become prime minister mean the media should belatedly take the gloves off. Reform UK is a limited company


owned by Farage and possibly overseas “


players, rather than a normal political party. There is nothing normal about Reform and everyone associated with it, and every scrap of its finances should be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny. If the disaffected want to continuing


voting for Reform, they should at least understand what the organisation and its billionaire supporters really stand for. Investigative reporter John Sweeney


has just finished a book, The Real Nigel Farage, to be published in September. Farage has in the past said Sweeney


had “caused him more misery than any other in my 25 years in politics”. You can be sure that more misery


and revelations are on the way for the Reform leader from Sweeney. The difficulty in tackling Farage is


that he often avoids questions and is rude and petulant when cornered by journalists. The Sunday before the elections, Farage pulled out of the Kuenssberg Show, where he might just have been asked about the £5 million. British journalists must learn from the errors of their counterparts in the US where Trump routinely is allowed to insult women journalists while their colleagues continue as if nothing has happened. It’s time for journalists to temporarily set their rivalries aside and co-operate to make sure Farage and everything he stands for is properly examined. The other way forward is to look at


Farage was turned into a national personality with the help of at least 38 appearances on BBC Question Time


what Reform is doing in the councils it controls. The Financial Times examined Staffordshire, where Reform has been in power for a year. How were they getting on? Badly, was the FT’s verdict. Every Reform lie and false claim has to be run to ground. Above all, Reform, the limited


company owned by Farage, must not be treated as a normal British political party when it is anything but a party.


theJournalist |07


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