My row with Lee Anderson highlights a new, rising and worrying trend

ATTACKS ON 'ENEMY' JOURNALISTS UNDERMINE SCRUTINY

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

I'VE had an argument with Lee Anderson. Reform's chief rabble-rouser is certainly no stranger to provoking debate and we've covered many of them over the years.

It’s by no means the first time he’s taken issue with us at the Post either. I first got into trouble with him when he was still a Conservative MP in the dying days of the Liz Truss premiership.

I spent a morning contacting the offices of every Conservative MP in Nottinghamshire (that would be a quick job nowadays) to ask if they still supported Truss as their leader. I gave them until the end of the day - ample time for an MP to confirm if they liked their leader or not.

Many did not respond and we ran a piece highlighting the fact that just two county Tories actually confirmed their support for Truss. Lee was not happy.

Yet the latest argument on Thursday goes beyond our relationship with Mr Anderson, which we always try in good faith to maintain as we do with all our MPs and which regularly has its positive moments. Thursday's row highlighted a much broader and much more troubling attitude towards local media.

It began with a factual post on X from myself which said: "Reform didn’t attend our Nottinghamshire Live county council hustings this week. Listening to BBC Radio Nottingham’s hustings this morning, Reform again aren't attending. Last year, Nottinghamshire Live hosted five general election hustings and Reform were not at any.

"Politics aside, this isn’t on." Reaction from Mr Anderson, who had not been directly tagged into the post, was swift.