Has Reform UK rolled out the Nottinghamshire media ban to Wales?

Following Reform UK’s shocking yet unsurprising media blackout in Nottinghamshire, Nation.Cymru’s news editor Emily Price discusses the party’s recent behaviour towards the press in Wales.

Last month, the Reform leader of Nottinghamshire County Council announced a boycott of The Nottingham Post and its online arm Nottinghamshire Live as well as the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The unprecedented move – condemned by journalists and press freedom campaigners – came following a disagreement over a piece the news outlet ran about local government reorganisation.

The story sparked an opinion column from the editor of the Independent who alleged that he had received threats from Reform of a ban if the national newspaper did not change a critical story or the tone of its questions and coverage.

But is Reform’s undemocratic Donald Trump style wall of silence being rolled out to the media here in Wales? I certainly think it is.

Blocked

Engaging with Reform UK’s politicians and comms operation has become more and more arduous – particularity over the last few months.

As the news editor of Nation.Cymru, I was blocked completely from speaking with Reform Wales’ former spokesperson and now Caerphilly candidate Llŷr Powell.

Powell had taken umbrage with my attempts to report on his controversial previous employment with Scouts Cymru.

Powell told another Nation.Cymru journalist who was forced to act as a mediator between us that he would sue me if I reported how he came to leave his previous role.

For a while, it seemed Powell would at least speak amicably and professionally to one of our senior journalists.

But the Senedd hopeful later turned on him too, sending a threat of legal action via his official Reform UK email address over the reporter’s coverage of comments Powell had made about the Welsh language in a TV interview.

The former Scouts employee later composed himself and withdrew the threat – but took to social media to call for Nation.Cymru to be defunded.

Free speech

During Powell’s time as Wales’ head of communications, we did not receive press releases or invites to some of the party’s key Welsh announcements such as Laura Anne Jones’ defection to Reform from the Conservatives.

The party’s supposed strong support for free speech appears to only apply if a journalist doesn’t report on something they would rather the public didn’t know.

Nation.Cymru was, however, informed in advance and invited to Nigel Farage’s Port Talbot visit in June.

I believe this was only because I had spent many weeks making a concerted effort to stay on the good side of one of Reform’s Westminster based press officers.

Although, this staffer has since stopped responding to my questions following a critical story I wrote about them.

Reform’s disturbing refusal to speak to journalists who hold their party to account is a worrying indication of what could be on the cards if the party wins the 2026 Senedd election.

Worrying

It appears that the closer the May election comes, the more Reform’s potential future Senedd Members are attempting to black-list journalists who scrutinise them.

One senior Reform figure told me he would “never” speak to a prominent BBC Wales reporter again following an entirely legitimate story the public service broadcaster had run about him.

The same Reform figure sent me a message saying he was “happy” to work with me – but only if I didn’t ever report on the same story.

He would later stop responding to my messages altogether when I didn’t heed his warning.

A Welsh Reform councillor reported Nation.Cymru to IPSO in a bid to get a story about them removed.

The press regulator threw the complaint out after concluding our coverage was justified.

Earlier this month, Reform UK’s newest Welsh councillor Sarah Lang told the Local Democracy Reporting service she wasn’t allowed to speak to journalists.

Her comments came after Nation.Cymru revealed that the Trevethin community councillor appeared in explicit photos on adult websites under the pseudonym ‘Princess Spyderlily’.

The story was later covered by national news outlets.

During the same week, when Reform UK councillor Stuart Keyte found himself in hot water for spreading false rumours about Nigel Farage, he told Radio Wales Breakfast the report was a “pure hit story” adding that he would say no more on the matter.

‘Pattern’

In what appeared to be a bid to explain away in advance any future bad press, Keyte told the BBC there would be a lot more stories about Reform coming up to the Senedd election – but that this would be due to a “pattern” with “certain news publications”.

There does indeed appear to be a pattern emerging – Reform in Wales are not interested in free press and a democratic society because they would prefer it if Welsh journalists stopped raking around for the many skeletons in the party’s oversized closet.

Ironically, when I contacted Reform UK informing them that I would be writing a piece laying out that the media black-out in Nottingham chimed with what was happing in Wales – I was met with silence.