Andy

British European.
I stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦
Hate Farage, Reform, Burnham and Brexit 🇪🇺
Cat Father of four 🐈🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛
Beer snob 🍺

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

Four things that Nigel Farage likes to avoid

* Paying taxes
* Visiting Clacton
* The job of being an MP
* Telling the truth

Bit of a shit, isn’t he?

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@Sacha_Lord For those defending the PM for going on Gogglebox

Burnham is the PM and if he was doing his job properly, he could find funding to support research into cancer.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@trussliz Bless!

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@reformparty_uk When did Farage ever hold a MP's surgery?

Farage is a bloody skiver.

[Brian4new @GustBrian]

How to quit a job with style 😂

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

Looks like @Miatsf has been given the kid gloves treatment.

The gloves made out of real kids....

[Miatta Fahnbulleh @Miatsf]

Today I made what was meant to be a light-hearted self-deprecating remark. I didn’t get it right and it hasn’t come off as I intended.

I fully support our Home Secretary and the government’s position on migration reform.

As I said earlier this week, it’s absolutely right that people should have to make a contribution to this country in order to earn citizenship.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@JackElsom @martinabettt No 10 North is being set up while BBC Scotland TV channel is being closed down.

Odd priorities.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@montysbiscuit @superTV247 If only Burnham was in some job which could influence spending on research into Cancer....

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@UKLabour Burnham has done nothing about Social Care - he has merely talked about it so far. Just like the Tories.

There is no plan, no allocated funding and no mandate to make change.

All fur coat and no knickers.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@PolitlcsUK Hasn't Burnham got a country to run?

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@ZiaYusufUK As someone who cares about British democracy, I am concerned that an unelected, unelectable nobody with a bit of cash to throw around, calls himself a "Shadow Home Secretary" and appears on TV shows slagging off people who actually got elected.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@RupertLowe10 I guess in your Turd Reich, you would ban and imprison all journalists, eh Lowe.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

I like Thursday evenings on Twitter because Reform politicians don’t post anything, as it’s their bath time.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

I like Thursday evenings on Twitter because Reform politicians don’t post anything, as it’s their bath time.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

A fake “Shadow Home Secretary” complains about people being fake.

Can’t make it up.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

I want to tell you about one of the people ITV psychologically damaged, who does not appear in any documentary.

He is a Reform member in Portsmouth.

He served as a Royal Marine in Afghanistan and Iraq, with distinction.

One of ITV's undercover reporters told him they shared the same military background.

That was a lie.

The Marine, believing him, took him for a drink. They spent hours talking about their 'shared' service.

He shared deeply personal stories from the front line.

He thought he was talking to a friend who had been through the same things.

He has since learned that the man across the table was an actor with a hidden camera, sent by a television company to damage the party he volunteers for.

Violated. That's the word he used, and I'm not going to soften it.

A man who put his life on the line for this country had his most private memories extracted by deception for a TV programme.

ITV should be ashamed.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@NadineDorries Is @ZiaYusufUK violating elected politicians by pretending to be a “shadow Home Secretary”?

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@weathagirl @ZiaYusufUK Labour and all other political parties do not publicly blame the journalists or the company they work for

[Sam @SamCKx]

Zia Yusuf has made an extraordinary series of public statements presenting alleged criminal conduct by ITV journalists as established fact, in an apparent attempt to intimidate and silence the free press.

He does not say “Reform alleges that…” or “the journalists may have committed…”. He repeatedly states that criminal offences were committed by people who, as far as the public record shows, have not been charged or convicted of those offences. If these serious allegations cannot ultimately be substantiated, Yusuf could have exposed himself to significant civil liability, including a potentially serious defamation claim.

Let’s take his five claims.

“They forged a passport.”

This is a serious criminal allegation, not an established fact. There is a potentially relevant offence under the Identity Documents Act 2010, but whether it was committed depends on precisely what document was created or altered, what the journalist knew and the statutory intention involved.

Yusuf has converted an allegation about what happened to a document into a definitive declaration that a criminal offence was committed. That is a very different thing.

“These crimes carry up to 10 years in prison.”

This is pure rhetorical intimidation. A maximum sentence attached to an offence does not establish that the offence has occurred.

“They committed a criminal offence by being paid to canvass” and “almost certainly altered the results.”

This is where Yusuf’s argument becomes particularly misleading. These journalists were not paid by ITV to canvass for Reform. They were paid by ITV as undercover investigative journalists. Their participation in Reform campaign activity was part of maintaining their undercover identities. ITV did not employ them to promote Reform candidates, procure votes or act as Reform canvassers.

Yusuf then claims they “almost certainly altered” election results, without producing evidence that they changed a single vote. That is a disputed interpretation of the law followed by an entirely unsupported claim about election outcomes.

“They lied to a veteran and left him violated.”

This is emotive rhetoric, not an identified criminal offence. Undercover journalism necessarily involves deception where revealing the journalist’s identity would defeat the investigation. Pretending otherwise is simply to misunderstand how undercover journalism works.

“This is unprecedented.”

It isn’t. British journalists have used false identities, covert recording and deception for decades to investigate corruption, criminality, racism and misconduct. These are established investigative techniques, subject to the law and broadcasting regulation, not some novel weapon invented to target Reform.

A free press is not supposed to obtain permission from the political parties it investigates. Undercover journalism does not suddenly become criminal simply because the people being investigated object to what it uncovered.

If you want to understand the danger of political parties with vast financial resources using litigation and legal threats to pressure the press, this is what it looks like.

We have already seen Donald Trump use lawsuits and legal threats against major news organisations to prevent them exposing his conduct. Now Reform is threatening journalists with police action and “relentless” legal proceedings to silence them.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

@SophyRidgeSky Excellent interview by @SophyRidgeSky - thank you!