The decision by Nottinghamshire council’s Reform UK leader, Mick Barton, to ban his councillors from speaking to the Nottingham Post is as absurd as it is troubling. The recently elected leader of a council with a budget of £668m ought to be eager to communicate with residents about his plans. Yet Mr Barton’s skin is apparently so thin that just three months after winning power, he announced the boycott in response to a news report about local government reforms.
An earlier row focused on a video interview given by James Walker-Gurley, which went viral after the cabinet member struggled to answer questions. This was embarrassing. But there was nothing unusual about the issues raised by the reporter, or about the local government story that prompted the ban. The Nottingham Post’s journalists were simply doing their job of scrutinising public authorities.
Labour’s proposed overhaul of local government in England is far-reaching. In counties including Nottinghamshire, ministers aim to replace multiple tiers with one and create new mayoralties. The area covered by Nottingham city council is likely to be expanded. It is right that such changes are debated, and unsurprising if local politicians disagree about the details. Yet rather than tell Mr Barton to stop picking fights with the press and concentrate on running the county, senior party colleagues, including the local MP Lee Anderson, have announced that they are joining in. They won’t talk to the Nottingham Post either.
The paper, founded in 1878, has a strong track record despite facing huge challenges – along with other local news organisations – due to competition from social media and falling advertising sales. Last year, it successfully defended a complaint from Nottinghamshire police after publishing a story that revealed how they had tried to hide details of their contact with Valdo Calocane before he murdered three people. Natalie Fahy, the editor, described this row as part of a pattern of encroachment on press freedoms.
Just last month, Nigel Farage depicted himself as an enemy of censorship when announcing a policy of repealing online safety laws. But his failure to stand up for the press in Nottingham is as unsurprising as it is hypocritical. Mr Farage is against attempts by governments to regulate the internet – but not against Reform politicians rejecting norms of democratic scrutiny. He borrows the language of free expression only when it suits him.
Given their party’s track record and fixation on immigration, it was never likely that the 670 men and women elected as Reform councillors in May, to run 10 councils mostly in the Midlands and north of England, would be the advocates that these communities need. But unlike Mr Farage, many of these new councillors were largely unknown figures, even in their communities. While all should not be tarred with the same brush, it is disturbing to see such petulance and illiberalism displayed in Nottingham so early in the new council’s term of office.
If events in Nottinghamshire were repeated at a national level, this could mean a government refusing to speak to sections of the press or, say, the BBC. This is a chilling prospect. But the local consequences must be taken seriously too. Local news sources, and journalists whose job it is to scrutinise decision-makers, are not a throwback or an adjunct to democracy. They are a vital part of it.