Reform UK Bans Critical Journalists From Annual Conference

Reform UK banned journalists Anna Isaac, Peter Geoghegan, and Michael Crick from its annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The party initially denied their credentials, briefly reinstated them citing an administrative error, and then confirmed their final exclusion.

Party spokespeople claimed Geoghegan and Crick did not qualify for media passes because they are a Substack blogger and a university employee, respectively. The party provided no reason for the ban of Isaac. Reform UK stated it accepted 950 of approximately 1,000 media applications, including the entire Guardian lobby team.

All three journalists have reported critically on the party and its leader, Nigel Farage, specifically regarding an undeclared £5 million gift Farage received from Christopher Harborne and related money-laundering concerns. The National Union of Journalists and The Guardian condemned the exclusions as an obstruction of media freedom and a failure of democratic accountability.