{"id":733809,"date":"2026-08-10T20:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T20:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/733809\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T20:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T20:02:14","slug":"reform-donor-arron-banks-urged-to-set-out-extent-of-surveillance-of-journalists-arron-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/733809\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform donor Arron Banks urged to set out extent of surveillance of journalists | Arron Banks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The businessman and Reform UK donor Arron Banks<\/a> is facing calls to lay out the extent of his surveillance of journalists, described by an industry body as an \u201cattack on our democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The News Media Association (NMA), which represents regional and national media, raised concerns after Banks appeared to admit over the weekend to hiring private investigators to spy on a Sunday Times journalist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The revelation, first reported in the New Statesman, has led to fears that other journalists examining the funding of Reform and Nigel Farage, including those at the Guardian, could have been targeted.<\/p>\n

When asked over the weekend whether he had commissioned investigators to surveil reporters at the Guardian, Banks said he was \u201cnot really interested in the Guardian\u201d but declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

The Guardian, along with the Sunday Times, has broken a series of stories<\/a> in recent months revealing how cash has been given to Reform and Farage personally from donors and wealthy benefactors.<\/p>\n

Theo Bamber, the chief executive of the NMA, said aggressive attempts to deter journalistic inquiry were at risk of becoming normalised.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cUsing private investigators to try to deter journalists from making legitimate inquiries about public figures is an attack on our democracy. Sadly, intimidation and abuse of local and national journalists is increasingly used as a weapon to limit scrutiny and deflect attention away from matters of public interest. This must not become normalised.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinisters must wake up to this threat to our democracy and do much more to protect the independent journalism which underpins our democratic way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the New Statesman<\/a>, Banks instructed Precision Risk and Intelligence, a private investigations company he once owned, to examine Gabriel Pogrund, the editor of the Sunday Times\u2019 Insight investigations team.<\/p>\n

In response to inquiries, Banks told the magazine: \u201cWe believe the Sunday Times<\/a> used hacked information and that was an area of interest. We do have an investigative arm that\u2019s got advanced capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times has strongly rejected Banks\u2019s suggestion.<\/p>\n

Banks, when asked directly by the New Statesman whether he had paid investigators to look into Pogrund, responded: \u201cWhen you live by the sword, you die by the sword.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jemimah Steinfeld, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, said Banks should be open and transparent about the extent of his surveillance of journalists.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI really, really hope that it\u2019s not happening to other journalists. But my fear is that it will be, because Gabriel is not the only one who\u2019s asking the right questions about Reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tactics are often used to just stop the questions, to stop accountability, and that can have hugely detrimental effects on our democratic structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reform UK has denied any knowledge of Banks\u2019s alleged use of investigators.<\/p>\n

Gawain Towler, a member of Reform\u2019s board and a former head of press for Ukip, said he was uncomfortable with the development but there were legitimate questions as to where journalists were sourcing private information.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally I don\u2019t like it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut truly how in the light of the situation does one ask questions with a possibility of getting an answer \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the issue with Banks is that there was actually silence about this possible collusion with the [National Crime Agency and journalists] \u2026 It would be ridiculous of us not to ask questions. So how do you ask questions?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicky Morgan, a former Conservative secretary of state for culture, media and sport, said such intrusions in press freedom were \u201cnot compatible with an open democracy\u201d. She said: \u201cInvestigating a journalist can only be intended to have a chilling effect on free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrats\u2019 Cabinet Office spokesperson said: \u201cHiring private investigators to target journalists who are simply doing their jobs is a desperate attempt to dodge accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who uses or condones these tactics demonstrates complete contempt for a free press and should have no business in British public life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banks, who helped run the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU, is reported to have previously hired what he described as \u201cex-MI5 and SAS\u201d operatives to surveil political opponents in the run-up to the EU referendum.<\/p>\n

Included among those was Matthew Elliott, a Conservative peer who was the chief executive of the rival Vote Leave campaign. He has warned that such tactics will \u201cdrive out the decent people we need in public life\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The businessman and Reform UK donor Arron Banks is facing calls to lay out the extent of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-733809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}