DAN HODGES: I'm one of the many journalists to be lambasted by Reform figures in recent days. Now, the freedom of the British Press faces a pincer movement from the Right AND Left... No one is safe

By DAN HODGES, DAILY MAIL COLUMNIST Published: 01:01, 23 August 2026 | Updated: 01:47, 23 August 2026 On Friday morning Reform chairman Lee Anderson took to X to hail his party’s victory in Thursday’s Harraby South (Cumberland) Council by-election. In reply, I pointed out that Reform had contested two other local authority by-elections that evening, both of which they had lost. It earned me the following response: ‘Dan as rule I don’t often respond to your posts. However, after your social [media] rants about Reform UK over the past few months it has become quite clear that you would qualify for the high rate of PIP. ‘Don’t bother filling a form out, just show the DWP your X page. All you need now is a carer.’ Compared to his colleagues, Anderson’s post was relatively tame. Over the past week, as scrutiny has intensified over the ongoing infighting within Reform, a series of senior party figures – most notably Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice – have taken to social media to lambast the Press. Yusuf attacked the editor of The Spectator, the magazine’s political editor and the Daily Mail’s senior political-correspondent-at-large, by name. Tice joined in, launching additional attacks on The Times, Daily Mirror and The Guardian. The assault didn’t begin or end there. In the past month, Tice used his lawyers to threaten legal action towards journalists exploring his financial affairs. A fortnight ago, it emerged close Nigel Farage ally Arron Banks had employed private detectives to investigate The Sunday Times journalist who had exposed additional information relating to the Reform leader’s £5million gift from Thai crypto- billionaire Christopher Harborne, and links to convicted fraudster ‘Posh’ George Cottrell. The attacks on journalism and journalists are now reaching a dangerous pitch. Press freedom is no longer a Left-wing/Right-wing issue, writes Dan Hodges And Farage himself had angrily raised the spectre of the Leveson Inquiry when confronted by a Sky News camera crew over the same issues at Heathrow Airport. Reform’s leadership has become increasingly thin-skinned as the party’s poll lead has evaporated and the questions over its dubious finances have persisted. Threats towards the media from Farage and his acolytes could normally be dismissed as part of the rough and tumble of politics. But they are no longer being prosecuted in isolation. Across the political spectrum a dangerous, self-serving consensus is starting to form that the British media must be brought to heel. With traditional calls for regulation now being replaced by direct and overt intimidation of journalists who dare to defy the prevailing party or ideological line. In the wake of the tragic death of Cambridge Professor Jason Arday, the liberal Left embarked on a witch-hunt to identify and shame those journalists who had reported on the plagiarism scandal. At a vigil held in London’s Trafalgar Square, one of the attendees claimed Arday had been ‘lynched by the British media’. The so-called ‘Tory press’ inevitably found itself in the firing line. But the most self-righteous – and vicious – fury was directed at the Left’s own. Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, condemned The Guardian for having ‘borrowed freely from attack lines’ carried by other media outlets. On Friday morning Reform chairman Lee Anderson took to X to hail his party’s victory in Thursday’s Harraby South (Cumberland) Council by-election Amnesty International lambasted the ‘toxic, unregulated media culture’ and demanded fresh constraints in the form of ‘Arday’s Law’. Meanwhile, The Guardian and NUJ were forced to condemn racist attacks against black journalists who had covered the story. But that was still not enough for some. The editor of the progressive online site Novara Media was forced to issue a public apology for his decision to report on Arday. One of his colleagues delivered a tearful repudiation of his own journalism, in an on-camera plea for forgiveness, stating ‘the image of me as a journalist capable of great callousness is now permanently on the page. ‘It’s one I can’t escape, and I think that’s a necessity to ensure I never make such grave and irresponsible errors of judgment again’, he added. There has always been pressure from the elite to control and suppress how the media interrogates them. But British Press freedom is now facing an unprecedented pincer-movement from both the Left and the Right. Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage agree on nothing. Except a mutual desire to crush scrutiny of them and their disparate tribes. ‘There will be serious consequences if you continue,’ Farage barked at the Sky News journalists at Heathrow. In response to Arday’s death, Polanski raged that the academic had been the ‘subject of sustained and malicious media attacks which were no doubt more vicious because he was black’. As a result there should be an inquiry into the ‘culture and behaviour’ of the media which needs to be ‘sorted out’, he added. At the moment, neither Polanski nor Farage nor Maugham have the power to see the media muzzled. But one man does. And some siren voices have reportedly begun whispering to Andy Burnham that the time has come to slap the Right-wing, and disloyal Left-wing, Press into line. During the Makerfield by-election, the actors Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan made surprise visits to the constituency to back Burnham’s campaign. They may have been impressed by his commitment to extending the eligibility of disabled bus passes. Or it could have been to do with their ongoing campaign to force through new Press regulation, known as Leveson II. The official line from Burnham’s team is fresh regulation is not at the top of his agenda. But according to one minister: ‘There are some people close to Andy pushing Leverson II. It’s not top of his to-do list at the moment. But it’s under consideration.’ Those advocating the neutering of the Press claim it is to curb its excesses. But the reality is the current threat is a product of the media’s recent successes. The exposure of the Mandelson/Epstein scandal played its part in the downfall of Keir Starmer. The exposure of Jason Arday’s plagiarism had tragic consequences but was legitimate and necessary journalism. The ongoing exposure of Nigel Farage and Reform’s finances are similarly shedding an important light on the inner workings of the party that aspires to be our next government. And people across the political spectrum hate it. Nurtured by social media, fuelled by a polarising tribalism, promoted by politicians of all persuasions who wish the Press would simply leave them to their own devices, the attacks on journalism and journalists are now reaching a dangerous pitch. Yes, the Press has been threatened before. But this is the first time in recent memory that such an unholy anti-media alliance has started to form. Press freedom is no longer a Left-wing/Right-wing issue. Novara. The Times. The Guardian. The Daily Mail. They are coming for everyone. No one is safe. Nobody will be spared. Trump official calls for academic who was suspended by his university over plagiarism allegations against Jason Arday to be reinstated