The Reform UK leader of Nottinghamshire County Council has denied that his party’s councillors were barred from speaking to a local newspaper’s reporters.
Last week the council told the BBC that Mick Barton had banned the Nottingham Post and its online arm Nottinghamshire Live from speaking to him and other councillors “with immediate effect”.
It came after a disagreement over a story the publication ran about local government reorganisation, with the council saying “councillor Barton and his colleagues will not be giving interviews”.
But after a council meeting on Tuesday, Barton has since told the BBC the ban only applied to press releases and him personally.
“We haven’t got a problem, I’ve not got a problem, I’m being professional and I hope the Notts Post become professional,” Barton said after the meeting.
“The ban still stands until they come and apologise. They need to pick the phone up and speak to me.”
He said he had “never stopped” his councillors from speaking to journalists at the publication.
The authority previously said it would stop sending press releases to the publication, and that Barton and his 40 fellow Reform councillors would not give interviews or invite them to council events.
A spokesperson for the council said last week that “the ban, which will only be lifted for emergency scenarios like flooding and weather-related cases, incidents at council-run schools, adult social care, or public safety issues, has come into immediate effect”.
But Barton denied this, and added: “I don’t know where that’s come from.
“I’m the leader, I don’t control their lives. If a media person wants to speak to anybody in my group, I can’t control that and I wouldn’t want to control it.”
When the BBC referred to the council’s statement, Barton said: “I’ve not printed that, I’ve just put a ban on Notts Live, we aren’t working with them.”
Also included in the ban are BBC-funded journalists who work at the publication as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Reporters from Nottinghamshire Live and the LDRS can continue to attend public meetings.
The ban has been criticised by Nottinghamshire Live editor Natalie Fahy, who attempted to hand Barton a copy of the Nottingham Post at the start of the meeting on Tuesday, which he refused to accept.
The extraordinary council meeting was held earlier for councillors to vote on their preferred option for local government reform in Nottinghamshire.
A petition created by the publication, called Reform: Stop hiding from press scrutiny, has gained more than 26,000 signatures.
According to the Post, an article written by its agenda editor Oliver Pridmore prompted the ban.
The piece – about ongoing discussions over the reorganisation of local government – included a claim that two Reform UK councillors said at a public surgery they could be suspended from their county council group if they did not vote for Barton’s preferred model.
Pridmore attended the meeting and afterwards, said: “We haven’t got anything to apologise for, and we stand by the coverage we produced. It’s the exact same coverage we provide on any council in our patch.”
Leader of the opposition, Conservative Sam Smith, added the ban was “totally ludicrous”.
“It shows weak leadership, they are scared of the press asking questions they don’t know the answers to,” he said.
Before Barton’s comments, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice had said if reporters “act as activists”, then “maybe we don’t have to talk to them”.
During a series of interviews with BBC local radio stations earlier, BBC Radio Bristol asked Tice if he believes in free speech and “being challenged” in light of the council’s Nottinghamshire Live decision.
Tice said: “There’s a difference between the media and people who pretend to be media and act as activists, and that’s where we draw the line, and that’s a judgment that has been made in Nottinghamshire.”
He added: “I’m sure they’ll sort it out. But also, you know, freedom of speech means that if someone acts as an activist, then actually maybe we don’t have to talk to them – we’re talking to lots of other people, we enjoy scrutiny and accountability.
“I’ve looked at the stuff they’ve written and frankly it’s gone over the line.”
