Owen Jones slams Reform following call for journalist’s arrest

Reform and its backers are on something of a tear right now. With the scandals mounting, they’re doing everything they can to deflect and distract. And it seems ‘everything they can’ includes literally calling the police:

Retweeted by Isabel Oakeshott.

Very obvious that if Reform come to power, they will lock people up for criticising them. pic.twitter.com/6Vtf4f5HYq

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) July 13, 2026

The relevance of Isabel Oakeshott is that she’s the partner of Reform deputy Richard Tice. She’s also a self-proclaimed free speech warrior. And that’s not surprising, of course, because she’s far from the first such person to call for the oppression of speech they don’t like.

At risk

As we reported, Reform politicians are doing everything they can to convince the public that Nigel Farage’s life is being put at risk. It’s not being put at risk because his rivals are stirring up violence, though (something Farage himself stands accused of); it’s being put at risk because journalists are applying scrutiny to the man’s many ongoing scandals.

Now, Reform’s backers have gone full Karen by literally calling the police. As you can see above, an account has referred Dan Hodges of the Daily Mail to the police. According to them, scrutinising the far-right Farage qualifies as “harassment” that could “incite others against him and the party”.

Here are some of tweets that the boys in blue may soon be scrolling over:

Think it's worth repeating. Zia Yusuf claimed no state support was being offered to Reform MPs for protection. In reality, Nigel Farage was offered a car, a trained driver, a bodyguard, and security on a similar level to that offered Kemi Badenoch. That's quite the deception.

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) July 14, 2026

But Hodges isn’t backing down:

"Your party has been spewing reckless hate for Reform. Starmer said Reform are not fit to be in government". So saying Reform are not fit to form a government now represents "reckless hate". As I said, this is all part of a coordinated effort to prevent legitimate scrutiny. https://t.co/5ekoOZph3s

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) July 14, 2026

Oh, that. No, you guys are deliberately trying to deflect from the £5m donation. That's self-evident. I'm not going to be apologising for that. I'm going to keep repeating it. https://t.co/dQQrfiy364

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) July 14, 2026

If you’re unfamiliar with Hodges, he’s someone who pisses everyone off (for us, his atrocious takes on Palestine). We’ve never called for his arrest, though, and we’re part of the ‘censorious left’, apparently! Reform UK, meanwhile, sells itself as a bastion of free speech.

Here’s what Tice said about us last month in response to an article from 2020:

Is this you Canary?
Do you now accept cancel culture exists?
Would you like some help from us who are Right?
Even though you have been utterly foul to us ? https://t.co/bIVrULwQwk

— Richard Tice MP 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) June 30, 2026

He’s lucky we didn’t call the police on him, honestly; apparently you can do that when your feelings get hurt now.

The article above did draw a distinction between actual oppression (e.g. the state arresting a journalist for doing their job) and irrelevant oppression (e.g. people calling you names online). So it’s not like we ever denied the existence of authoritarianism. We know it exists, and we know we’re looking at would-be authoritarians in Reform UK.

Inscrutable

Needless to say, all politicians face scrutiny. The billionaire-funded Reform is facing a lot of scrutiny right now, and the signs are that it’s eroding the party’s support. In response, Reform and Reform-linked journalists are lashing out.

Farage and the far-right may not like the heat directed at them, but they’ve had no problem directing it at others. On 13 July, we covered that Reform’s Zia Yusuf was complaining about the criticism his party faces. As Willem Moore noted:

If you’re going to label people ‘traitors’ — as Zia Yusuf has — then people are going to get angry. If you’re going to claim successive governments have overseen an ‘invasion’ — as he has — then tensions are going to rise.

Politicians who stoke fear and division think they can ride the wave, but hatred is more like a fire than a sea. And people who play with fire get burned.

As Owen Jones said, it seems clear that Reform and its politicians will pursue authoritarian politics should they take power. This is despite their insistence that they will defend free speech; an example of that being the following response from Reform’s Matt Goodwin to Jones:

Unlikely given Reform is the only party completely committed to the restoration of free speech. What some of your Green party colleagues would do to you if the Islamo-Greens ever come to power is a far more interesting question, Owen.

The ‘Islamo-Greens’, he says, because he’s a racist, little gobsh*te.

People in turn replied to Goodwin:

“committed to the restoration of free speech.”

Hmmm … 🤔 pic.twitter.com/xZpa0FwqlI

— M4rty 🇪🇺 (@M4rtyman) July 13, 2026

Jones responded too, noting:

Bollocks.

Reform is committed to banning protests against Israel's genocide.

Why?

Because Reform claims they are "inciting hate and violence".

They will use this smear to shut down other protests and arrest dissidents. https://t.co/ECN6AB6jNQ

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) July 13, 2026

‘Free speech for me but not for thee‘ as they say.

Reform UK’s authoritarian streak

Reform is a party run by would-be fascists, so none of this surprises us. The casual calls for arrests should come as a stark warning to the British people, though; especially the ones who care about their democratic rights and freedoms.

Oh, and before we go, we should note that Oakeshott lives in Dubai — a country where modern slavery is rife, as well as restrictions on free speech. The alleged human trafficker Tristan Tate spends a lot of time in Dubai too, and Richard Tice was reposting him just the other day. Again, this is no surprise, because these people don’t believe in anything besides money and getting their own way. And if they need to use state violence to guarantee their rights to either, they will do.

Featured image via the Canary