Reform-Plaid defector quits as Editor of hard right group’s Journal

Martin Shipton

The Senedd Member who has defected from Reform UK to Plaid Cymru has confirmed that she has resigned as the editor of a journal published by a hard-right pressure group.

Sarah Cooper-Lesadd’s decision to switch allegiance has been strongly criticised by many of her former Reform colleagues.

But eyebrows were raised further when an entry on her register of interests at the Senedd was noticed.

It said she was Editor of the Journal of the Freedom Association, and was paid between £501 and £1,000 a year for working between five and 20 hours per week.

The Freedom Association was founded in 1975, gaining public prominence through its anti-trade union campaigns. Co-founder Ross McWhirter was murdered by the Provisional IRA in November 1975.

In the 1980s, it campaigned against sporting sanctions imposed on apartheid-era South Africa – earning a judicial rebuke after taking unsuccessful legal action to overturn the International Cricket Council ban on touring teams, which it saw as an imposition on cricketers’ freedom.

In 1988, the association threatened to seek a legal injunction against the BBC to prevent the broadcaster from broadcasting the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute from Wembley Stadium. A group of Conservative MPs and TFA objected to the possibility that the broadcast would include a message from Mandela or “other anti-apartheid propaganda.” The threat was dropped, “in the hope that the BBC [would] not broadcast any attempt to use the concert for promoting the African National Congress or similar anti-apartheid bodies”.

The Freedom Association describes itself as “a non-partisan, classically liberal campaign group”, but Marina Hyde, writing in The Guardian, called the organisation a “charmless libertarian pressure group”.

The group has no formal party political affiliations but historically most members have also been associated with the Conservative Party. In fact it has been described as the “conservative wing of the Conservative Party”. Since 2007, the Freedom Association has been running fringe events at the Conservative Party conference with speakers such as Daniel Hannan and John Redwood and groups including the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

Its Council includes current and former Tory MPs, as well as Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a former leader of UKIP.

The Freedom Association also has a campaign called Axe the TV tax, with the objective of abolishing the BBC licence fee. It opposes the BBC on what it perceives as bias, particularly with regard to the European Union prior to the referendum on the UK’s future membership.

Following the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the TFA established an annual weekend in Grantham, her birthplace, to celebrate her legacy around the date of her birth. Taking place at the Best Western Angel & Royal Hotel, attendees have the opportunity to hear from speakers who worked with Margaret Thatcher and those who now promote the values which Margaret Thatcher held dear.

Social media

We contacted Ms Cooper-Lesadd and said that a number of people had been in touch, with others mentioning on social media the fact that she was Editor of the Freedom Association’s Journal.

We asked her whether she was going to retain the post, given that the organisation represents quite a hard-right ideological perspective. We also asked how she had come to get the post in the first place.

She responded: “I resigned on Monday and the register of interests should be reflected accordingly soon.

“Effectively, I had a period of unemployment from October/November, last year, with no money and was offered this. I’ve wanted to give it up for a while but obviously events took over.”

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