Childish boycott makes a mockery of transparency claim

ON Tuesday, my team of journalists at the Nottingham Post - including those employed under the Local Democracy Service - discovered they had been subjected to a boycott by elected Reform UK members at Nottinghamshire County Council.

- By NATALIE FAHY Editor

Leader Mick Barton said we'd no longer be invited to events, be cast off the distribution list for press releases, and that any requests for interviews would be refused by him and the 40 other Reform councillors.

They have no power to stop us attending council meetings but we'll be unable to speak to them before or after.

He was upset about this article by our Agenda Editor Oliver Pridmore, which suggested not all councillors agreed on the plan for local government reorganisation.

A few hours later, Ashfield MP Lee Anderson said he'd join the boycott too, telling his Facebook followers that he would ‘engage with some media outlets, but not you lot’.

This follows an earlier attack on us in May, when his communications manager posted on his Facebook page to say ‘hundreds of people’ had complained to him about our apparent stream of negative stories on Reform (I call it an honest take but who am I to judge?).