Businessman and Reform UK donor Arron Banks is facing calls to disclose the extent of his surveillance of journalists. This follows his apparent admission over the weekend that he hired private investigators to spy on a Sunday Times journalist.
The News Media Association (NMA), which represents regional and national media, has raised concerns, describing such actions as an "attack on our democracy." Theo Bamber, the NMA's chief executive, stated that aggressive attempts to deter journalistic inquiry risk becoming normalised.
The New Statesman reported that Banks instructed Precision Risk and Intelligence, a company he once owned, to investigate Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the Sunday Times' Insight investigations team. Banks told the magazine, "We believe the Sunday Times used hacked information and that was an area of interest. We do have an investigative arm that’s got advanced capabilities." The Sunday Times has strongly rejected this suggestion.
When asked by the New Statesman if he paid investigators to look into Pogrund, Banks responded: "When you live by the sword, you die by the sword." Reform UK has denied any knowledge of Banks's alleged use of investigators.
Jemimah Steinfeld, chief executive of Index on Censorship, urged Banks to be transparent about the extent of his surveillance of journalists. Nicky Morgan, a former Conservative secretary of state, said such intrusions on press freedom are "not compatible with an open democracy."