Editor hits back at Reform UK over 'misleading twaddle' claim

Reform UK is in the midst of yet another spat with the regional press after accusing a journalist of wanting to "damage" the party ahead of tomorrow's elections.

The party's deputy leader Richard Tice accused Yorkshire Post Westminster correspondent Ralph Blackburn of publishing "pathetic misleading twaddle" after the paper ran an interview with the MP.

In it, Mr Tice had defended the party’s selection of a Sheffield City Council candidate accused of having praised the Nazis, saying “we’re all human”.

The interview had been carried out last week, but its publication yesterday led Mr Tice to claim it had been timed to damage Reform in the week of the local elections.

Mr Tice, pictured, tweeted: "Pathetic misleading twaddle from journalist Blackburn who has deliberately held back our interview from last Tuesday to try to cause political damage to Reform ahead of local elections on Thursday.

"He and rest of Establishment media will be given short shrift by voters this week who will vote Reform in their millions. Voters are sick of this smearing sneering libellous nonsense"

The claim sparked a defiant response from Post editor James Mitchinson who wrote: "Mr Tice. The Yorkshire Post is far more trusted than you are. Not least because it has told the truth since 1754.

"Please don’t pull the Trump card on us. It’s pathetic. It’s pointless. It’s weak. My team is giving you a fair audience.

"Smearing truth tellers is not just a tactic for some politicians. Nor is it a strategy. It’s in their DNA.

"Characterising my journalist as corrupted by the Establishment for shining a light on something that should concern everyone is telling. Revealing. Sad."

The row originated in the controversy over the selection of Nathaniel Menday as Reform's candidate in Sheffield's Woodhouse ward for tomorrow's local elections.

Mr Menday had reportedly described himself as an "ethno-nationalist" and shared a pictured of the Nazi-designed Olympiastadion, saying: "Whichever people built this must have been real visionaries!”

He subsequently denied having Nazi sympathies saying: "I have flirted with what could reasonably be referred to as ‘far-right ideology’ but ultimately I have come to reject its core tenets."

In his interview with the YP, Mr Tice said that if elected, Mr Menday would be "assessed" and decisions made, while accusing the media of "playing gotcha politics."

Mr Tice said: "If people are elected, they'll all be looked at by the team, and decisions will be made. We do that, as do the other parties, and that’s just the facts of life if you’ve got 4,900 candidates.

"Have many people in their private lives occasionally sworn, thought something dark, said something dark? Yes, we're all human.”

He said the media “playing gotcha politics” will "end up preventing anybody [from standing] who might have said anything or written anything at any point in the past."

Mr Tice added: "As a democracy, I think we've got to think very carefully - is that the route that we are going to head down?"

The spat with the YP is the latest in a series of rows between the party and the regional press.

Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council barred Nottingham Post journalists from having contact with its members or officers last year, and last month attempted to bar its local democracy reporter from sitting on the press bench during a council meeting.

Reform also banned Will Hayward, the former Wales Online journalist who now runs an award-winning Substack newsletter covering Welsh affairs, from its manifesto launch for the Welsh elections.

The party’s PR chief in Wales, Ed Sumner, had previously described Will as a “c***” in a leaked WhatsApp message.