Uproar as Reform policy chief threatens to defund Welsh university
Martin Shipton
Reform UK’s head of policy Zia Yusuf launched a culture war in Wales by threatening to withhold funding from Bangor University after its student debating society refused to host two leading figures from his party.
Under the heading “Reform UK are not welcome at Bangor University”, the university’s Debating and Political Society issued a statement that said: “The Debating and Political Society received a request from Jack Anderton and Sarah Pochin MP of Reform UK to attend Bangor University and give a Q&A to students. In line with our values, this request was refused.
“We stand by this decision as a committee. We have zero tolerance for any form of racism, transphobia or homophobia displayed by the members of Reform UK. Their approach to the lives of others is antithetical to the values of welcoming and fair debate that our society has upheld for 177 years.
“We are proud to be the first of the debating unions to take a stand against Reform UK. We strongly implore our fellow societies to join us in keeping hate out of our universities.”
Anderton is a young social media adviser to Nigel Farage who has suggested that Britain would be better off had it stayed neutral in the second world war instead of fighting Nazi Germany, has said the UK should not support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and has argued that in a future world of “meritocracy”, the UK could “regain” former colonies such as Australia, Canada and South Africa.
Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election in May 2025, taking the seat from Labour by six votes. She was forced to apologise after stating: “It drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people.”
‘Racist’
Yusuf responded to the debating society with an angry post on X that said: “Bangor University have [sic] banned Reform and called us ‘racist, transphobic and homophobic’.
“Bangor receives £30 million in state funding a year, much of which comes from Reform-voting taxpayers. I am sure they won’t mind losing every penny of that state funding under a Reform government. After all, they wouldn’t want a racist’s money, would they?”
For many, Yusuf’s comments evoked comparisons with the behaviour of President Trump in the US, who has sought to defund what he regards as left-wing universities, including some of the most iconic like Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Columbia University in New York.
Nick Webb responded: “It’s not a university ban. It’s one small group of students who’ve decided they don’t want to host you – as is their right.”
Former Bridgend Labour council leader Jeff Jones answered Yusuf with a post stating: “What an idiotic thing to say. This is the UK in 2026, not Italy in 1922 or Germany in 1933.”
Rhys Llwyd wrote: “As a Bangor PhD graduate, I fully support the decision. “Threatening to withhold funding while showing zero grasp of the institution’s origins or philosophical tradition only underlines why the far right is a threat to our Welsh way of life.”
Plaid Cymru councillor Gareth Parry, from Bangor, wrote: “@ZiaYusufUK threatening Welsh universities for their student debating socs making their own decisions? That’s not patriotism. That’s petty authoritarianism with a Union Jack filter.”
Somebody with the handle lunaperla wrote: “Just a man who’s never been elected to anything threatening to defund a university because he’s too stupid to know the difference between the university and a student organisation.”
Huw L Williams wrote: “We’re so far gone that people can’t conceive of the fact that some legitimately regard a toxic party led by a racist who is adjacent to Trump as being beyond the pale – and the fact that they have a handful of MPs does not give them some form of immunity from moral opprobrium.”
‘Nazi vibes’
Sam Smith-Higgins wrote: “Quite the statement from Reform. A Reform Gov. would not fund a university who didn’t agree with them. Where have we heard that before? Nazi vibes. What scary times we live in.”
Bryant Bradshaw wrote: “They made their decision very clear. They fundamentally disagree with the policies of Reform and do not want to promote messages they fundamentally disagree with. A Supreme Court ruling in the Asher Baking Company case in 2018 protects society’s right to do that.”
The court held that people in the United Kingdom could not legally be forced to promote a message they fundamentally disagreed with.
Perhaps ironically, the court ruled in favour of a bakery in Northern Ireland whose Christian owners refused to decorate a cake displaying the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”.
‘Source of pride’
Sian Gwenllian MS strongly condemned Yusuf’s comments. Speaking in the Senedd on 10 February, the MS said the comments amounted to an explicit threat to de-fund Bangor University and demonstrated a fundamental lack of understanding of both the institution and the Arfon constituency.
“Bangor University is one of the major employers in our area,” she said. “It provides work for hundreds of people and supports a wide local economy, from electricians to academic staff who train the doctors and nurses of the future. To threaten its funding is to threaten the economic and social wellbeing of the whole community.”
The Arfon MS continued: “The university is central to the community and economic life of Arfon. It was founded through the efforts and sacrifices of the quarrymen of this area, and it remains a source of pride and opportunity for generations of local people.”
“Bullying and threatening higher education institutions, in the style we have seen elsewhere, is entirely disgraceful and completely at odds with our values here in Wales. Reform’s comments show they are not fit to govern.”
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I expect they’ve been sending such ‘requests for invitations’ everywhere with the precise hope of getting this response. Better to just ignore them.
Yeah this is their playbook to a tee. They don’t actually want to attend, they actually want to be refused, ideally whilst being called racist, because it allows them to play the victim and drive further engagement with their support base who lap it up uncritically. This gives them money for being on platforms like X so they get a cut of the ad money amongst other revenue streams, which is really the only thing they are in the game for. Sadly this debating society took the bait, probably thinking it was the least worst option, but the best way… Read more »
Inviting yourself to places you’re not wanted must be a right-wing thing like when Reform backer Elon Musk tried to invite himself to “wild” island parties.
Same Elon that farage was grasping for bungs from?
Same Elon that said Nigel hasn’t got what it takes. But maybe Elon was jealous about the alleged parties that no-one invited him to although there is nothing to suggest that Nigel has ever been on any island or yacht, sinister or not, although he was recently on an all expenses paid jolly with globalist billionaires in Davos although there is no evidence of wrongdoing just as there is no evidence of rightdoing and neither does it imply he attended any parties Elon wasn’t invited to.
Farage has 30+ mentions in the Epstein files, a lot from Steve Bannon basically pointing out farage is their man in the UK to wreck things.
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/11/19/dinner-with-mr-brexit-bannons-european-revolution-planned-with-farage-backed-by-epstein/
Sorry, no free speech for fascists.
No they can have their free speech. But that means that it doesn’t come without consequences.
I’d be happy to let their speakers turn up but they would have to be prepared for a barrage of hostile responses. Best that they experience first hand any hostility out there in our communities and we should be prepared for them to be welcomed in some places and know who’s backing them.
And that’s precisely the point these ‘students’ don’t get.
It does amuse me that the same vociferous individuals who exclaim ‘Defunding a university who disagrees with you? How FACIST!!!’ readily propose that people THEY don’t agree with shouldn’t even be allowed to talk.
Is the word ‘hypocrite’ still taught in Welsh schools? Or has its place been replaced by ‘bandwagon’?
Anyone shocked? They push hate and division and want this, this was never about “debate” it’s about creating a narrative.
Pochin’s outburst was a vile racist rant. Farage did not withdraw the whip. And we know farages mind anyway.
And Anderton sounds a right know it all charmer intent on re writing history, the Allies stood up to people doing what farage joked about. His grasp of history seems to come off the back of a cornflake packet.
Da iawn Prifysgol Bangor. Stand firm. We will democratically crush the mind disease that is Deform UK.
Reform don’t like educated people. They’re more capable of scrutiny and questions that Refoem won’t or can’t answer.
I agree with you. So why don’t University Students want to debate Reform and try to win arguments? There is nothing to be afraid of here. Reform is just another populist party (we have plenty!) claiming that we can have all the cake and eat it. Their platform is shallow and can be exposed by debate yet too many seem terrified to take them on. In the run-up to the Senedd elections we need as much debate as we can get. I’m yet to hear any plausible plans from any of the parties. Labour seems shellshocked, the Tories have lost… Read more »
Because they are mud slingers, hate paddlers and all round nasty. They will not debate, it will be sound bites so they can clip it up. This “debate” thing is what they want to push division. We know what Pochin stand for, she said it out loud.
Instead of the these, lets hear the candidates. Not farage or that racist woman and idiotic influencer, let’s hear the candidate with no farage to tell them what to say.
It’s literally impossible to successfully debate people who lie and lie and lie. Nobody honest can keep up with it. They’ll invent some specious example which ‘proves’ their point and nobody can debunk it on the spot.
It’s called the firehose of falsehood. Debate just gives them an extra platform and they’ve got plenty of those already.
Giving a platform to people who have repeatedly been explicit about their views on anyone who doesn’t fit their preconceived ideas about “people like us” is tacitly acknowledging that their views are worthy of consideration. It’s for that reason we shouldn’t encourage them by giving them a bully pulpit to preach their propaganda, and why they hate the idea of truly free speech: it affords people the option of choosing not to listen.
The point is that you have your opinions and other people have theirs. Demanding that your opinions are “correct” whilst those you disapprove of are “incorrect” is a fast track to the sort of society none of us want to live in.
Because as any intelligent person knows, you can’t win an argument with an idiot, and reform are demonstrably idiots. By going to a university, they hope to pull off the same stunt as Charlie Kirk did in the US; instigate a debate with those they regard as naive youngsters, and use well-worn tricks of sophistry, browbeating and lies to “win” the argument. I suspect students at Bangor would have successfully refuted reform’s arguments, but like all idiots, Yusuf and his ilk would use the usual tricks ; jump from one topic to another, pile on lie after lie, and when… Read more »
Not agreeing with other peoples opinions is not a reason to shut them down. What would you say if your views were suddenly declared to be unacceptable and you were told you needed to prevented from speaking for fear of people agreeing with you? Its not a good road to go down.
Your views, at least on the subject you’re touching on, are *literally* legally protected. What more do you want?
They might not be acceptable to ordinary decent people but that’s not quite the same thing.
Are you seriously suggesting that reform’s views are being shut down? Really? Farage is on TV almost permanently, reform seems to have a monopoly on most of the press, and the idiotic ramblings of reform MP’s and fellow travellers are regularly publicised and sanewashed by most of the media. If that is being shut down, those of us on the left would love to be shut down. You are welcome to your opinion, wrong as it is; you are not welcome to your own facts.
Not forgetting farages monday spiels to the press but stopped for a while when the gassing issue arose for him and he didnt want to face scrutiny.
Everything they do is designed to get a rise out of people so they can play the victim if someone responds the way they want them to.
Notice how when people call them racist, they cry foul. However when people call them grifters and con artists (a much more accurate description) they stay eerily quiet.
Given how many young people dislike reform, this could do Bangor the world of good for next years recruitment cycle!
“Bangor University have [sic] banned Reform…”
My biggest worry is that these people regularly reveal themselves as having the intellectual powers of a potato, yet there are still those in our society clamouring to vote for them. We must not be complacent.
That’s a bit harsh on potatoes, at least they feed us, and I love chips!
Wrong decision. People like Reform are exposed by scrutiny and debate. Their campaign in Caerphilly was killed stone dead by the lady in the debate’s audience. That’s the way to do it. This just turns them into “victims”.
Just on a category point – that sort of debate is not what a debating society does.
An artificial distinction in my opinion.
Reform have a democratic right to spout their bile, Bangor Debating Society have a democratic right not to give them a platform to do so. Up yours Yusuf, to misquote a Sun headline.
This guy Anderton is more than precious
He sets out his stall to the venue the condition he requires in order to hod an even
He has the neck to stipulate this.
“For security reasons, IDs will be checked on the door.”
Students on their own campus will object to this for many reasons including
Privacy & data protection issues .
Risk of discrimination or unfair exclusion.
Broader civil liberties concerns.
As others have pointed out, shutting down debate in this way is not the way to handle “undesirable” ideas. It leaves the problem of intolerance unresolved. It will only be overcome by engaging with it and using reason to refute its claims and positions. People generally adopt intolerant views due to ignorance. Education usually brings them around. That requires throwing a light on bad ideas, and showing them to be such. Cancel culture is a blight on our society. It’s as intolerant as those it decries as being intolerant. Go figure.
You’re showing an incredibly simplistic view of what this sort of debate would look like. It’s not an honest exchange of ideas, it’s giving a voice to disingenuous talking points. The debate could run until the end of time and nothing approaching a consensus on truth would ever be in sight.
They can always find a local venue or even an online forum and invite students to debate if that’s really what they want. An open invitation to an online thing every Friday evening. There, all the debate they want. All they need is a Zoom account.
A tolerant society is under an obligation to tolerate neither the intolerant, nor their intolerance. And anyone using the term “cancel culture” as a pejorative does not deserve to be taken seriously.
You seem to be saying that your definition of “tolerant” is to only tolerate people, opinions and even facts that you personally approve of. That isn’t tolerant of course.
Its quite bizarre that you have randomly decided that anyone using the term “cancel culture” does not “deserve to be taken seriously”.
Its a big wide world out there and difference is everywhere. We can either chill out and live or let live or spend our time being angry that people won’t do or think as you want them to.
I said no such thing. There are certain ideas and lies which should not be tolerated in a civilised society; it has nothing to do with what I or anyone agrees or disagrees with. As far as your use of a cliche is concerned, let me see if I can put it in terms more nearly adapted to your understanding; if you come out with “cancel culture” or the other classic, “woke” and use them as terms of abuse, you sound like a dick.
It always raises a smile when people like Yusuf play the ‘free speech’ card and simultaneously fail to appreciate the difference between the student debating society and the University itself. Has he not grasped that the society is merely exercising its own right to deny a platform to a brand of politics that clash with its own ideals, and this has nothing to do with Bangor University itself? Having been thrown off an anti-20mph social media group myself, one which supports a Reform UK policy, for simply pointing out the reduction in injuries since the policy’s introduction, I wonder how… Read more »
Well said.
Today Mr Yusuf will be mostly eating sour grapes.
But not humble pie for dessert, I suspect. Right wingers never apologise, it’s rule no.1.
“The Debating and Political Society received a request”
That’s not how it works. A university cancelling opinions is when the society *invites* a speaker and this is blocked by the senior administration.
What we’ve got here is a dodgy guy knocking at the door telling you there’s a problem with your roof and they’ll fix it today for cash who gets angry and threatening when you politely decline.
This is right out of the Donald Trump playbook by Reform’s Zia Yusuf. They love to threaten & intimidate if they don’t get their way. Imagine what damage they’d do to Wales if allowed. Like a drunk in control of a vehicle. They are a danger to Welsh democracy. And I’ve said this before. Just look at Reform controlled councils in England. Shambolic. They couldn’t run a tap let alone a country.
#Ymlaen 🏴 #PlaidCymru 🏴 #PuttingWalesFirstNotLast 🏴#ReformUK 🇬🇧 #RestHomeForFailedTories 🇬🇧 #WelshNot ⛔
It was only a matter of time before incomers would be telling us what we can or cannot do!
Ah – the obligatory casual racism. This is why Reform won’t ever be for me but I defend your right to state your views and rely on the good people of Cymru to form their own judgement.
Frank wasn’t referring to a race. You are good at incorrect assumptions aren’t you?
Whats an “incomer”?
Tin Hatter ! Terms change, Time stands as still as a Heron not wanting to warn Happiness flashing beneath the ripples that Nemesis towers over them both…
He’s running scared. He doesn’t want all the other universities following suit as the Reform vote would collapse.
Just add it to the Deform manifesto that major institutions will be forced to welcome Fascists, yet another reason to send them packing in May.
The irony of it all .
Anderton will only allow those to attend his event who have a full ID check.
He cites “security reasons”
There are of course many who might object to that
Least of all those who might be discriminated and excluded.
Yet Nigel Farage has stated “He would rather go to jail than carry an ID card “😂
Same farage that said he would pick up a rifle and head for the front lines if brexit was not delivered properly? Instead of debate….
Bone spurs probably.
The new Bogey Man cometh, run children, he wants to steal your mind, god protect us from the devils coming our way….
If you folks in the south east do it again we will never forgive you…
???
Screw them! Let them pant and pontificate all they want – makes them look silly, weak and spiteful.
Surely a university debating society should be inviting the views of groups of differing views to “debate” them, surely that’s the point instead of cancelling them. Just because they’re differing views to that of a left wing debating group, doesn’t mean they’re racist or wrong. They have enough of a mainstream support, so shouldnt be discounted or cancelled. Im not a reform voter by the way, just very tired of the same old left wing rhetoric and cancel culture. Charlie Kirk was correct, to heal divisions, we need open and respectful debate, and realise that we’re not all polar opposites… Read more »
Reform are not honest interlocutors. It would not be a debate in good faith. There is no point engaging with them even to tell them to sod off.
Da iawn Bangor. Cer i crafu RefUK!
I do not agree with Bangor University’s stance, and in some ways it can appear inconsistent given that many universities host a wide range of political societies with controversial or strongly ideological views. That said, universities are autonomous institutions, and it should not be the role of government to pressure them into supporting or hosting a particular politician.
Why did they target Bangor anyway. Reform have done this for a reason, or rather farages handlers have told him to target Bangor.
They will have emailed as many debating societies that they could find. Bangor were just the first to reply.
isnt the point to debate things we disagree on .. by not hosting them you’re essentially silencing a view or set of views you dont like .. usual tactic used in socialist and later totalitarian societies.
Several posts have already addressed this. Nobody can force someone else to host them, the idea would be mad. They can run their own debate and invite Bangor students if they really want.
Not sure how you were brought up but most consider it rude to turn up to a party uninvited, probably drunk and aggressive and start picking fights with nice people.
Yeah bring it on. Support for independence would quadruple. “English Nationalist Party closes down Welsh university.”