Reform backer Arron Banks urged to set out extent of surveillance of journalists

Industry body says use of private investigators against reporters is ‘attack on our democracy’ after Banks apparently admitted doing so The businessman and Reform UK backer Arron Banks is facing calls to lay out the extent of his surveillance of journalists, described by an industry body as an “attack on our democracy”. 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. 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. When asked over the weekend whether he had commissioned investigators to surveil reporters at the Guardian, Banks, a Reform UK member and former mayoral candidate, said he was “not really interested in the Guardian” but declined to comment further. The Guardian, along with the Sunday Times, has broken a series of stories in recent months revealing how cash has been given to Reform and Farage personally from donors and wealthy benefactors. Theo Bamber, the chie