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WATCH: Furious GB News row erupts after Bangor University blocks Reform UK event - 'censored again!'
Feb 10, 2026
A furious row erupted on GB News after Bangor University’s Politics and Debating Society blocked a Reform UK event, branding potential speakers “racist, sexist and homophobic”.Political commentator Jack Anderton said he was “rudely rejected” after approaching the society as part of a national university tour.“They told us we were hateful and not welcome on campus,” Anderton said, adding that he and Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin had sought to attend “in good faith” to debate students.He accused the society of hypocrisy, saying it claimed to welcome opposing views while shutting out speakers from what he described as “the leading political party in Britain”.However, Ben McLean from Turn Left Media pushed back, arguing the decision did not amount to a free speech issue.He said refusing to host a speaker was not the same as silencing them, insisting there was a clear difference between freedom of expression and a right to a platform.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
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societies be allowed to ban reform UK. We're joined by the editor contributor of Turn Left
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Media, Ben McLean, and the political commentator, Jack Anderton. Jack, we're going to start with you
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I believe it was your letter that was so rudely rejected by this Bangor society
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That's correct, Tom. So I am doing a university tour, a national university tour across the
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country. So I've been to six universities so far. And Bangor was a university that we wanted to
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visit, myself and Sarah Pochin, the MP for Reform UK. And we politely reached out to the Politics
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and Debating Society at Bangor University. And they rudely declined and obviously called us
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as you explained, racist, sexist, homophobic, and that we were hateful. And that myself and Sarah
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were not welcome on campus. So that's really what has happened in this situation, which is that
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two people who are fairly moderate in their politics and, you know
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members and supporters of what is the leading political party in Britain have been sort of..
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They were not welcome on university campuses in Bangor. And it's a really unfortunate situation
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Ben, it's a bit of a contradiction, isn't it, if they're saying that they are welcoming opposing views and clashing ideas
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For them to then sort of say, well, we're not going to have you on because basically you're all a bunch of racists
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which I don't think is fair. Do you think that's fair? Well, I think that it would be fair to say it's a difficult situation
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but I don't think it's fair to say it's a free speech issue. Like, Sarah and Jack are not being locked up
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for particular opinions they have, right? Free speech is not the same as the right to a platform
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Like, I might want to have, you know, to have a slot on BBC Question Time on the panel
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That would be lovely. I'd love that. Most of us here probably would, right? But if they say no that not a violation of my free speech That just them refusing me a platform And let not forget it was a debating society that said no not the university itself I was going to say sorry Ben just to interject but you can come back on this
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It's only because they've told them why they've refused them, because they said they're hate and they're this and they're that
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So it's not because they're denying them a platform for no reason. Like if you were going on Question Time, you might be denied a platform
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because they haven't got enough room. But they're specifically telling you that we think you're hateful
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you're homophobic, you're all of these things. So why are you not going on there? Yeah, words hurt
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I mean, you know, it's a bit like, get over it. Like, the point, though, is that it is
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Are you making it about her for words? Because clearly it's not a free speech issue, is it
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Ben, Ben, let Jack back in. I don't think Ben hadn't finished speaking
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That was all. That was all. No, no, it's all right. A space where you can freely debate and discuss ideas
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and that was really one of the original purposes for university. Bangor University is a prestigious university. It's one of the oldest in Britain
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And the fact that a debating society refuses to hold a debate
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as I said, with one of the two figures in the leading political party in Britain
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I think that is a free speech problem. Jack, what do you make of the claim that this is separate from, for example
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when a union society at a university invites a speaker and then there's a campaign from students to say, no, you must disinvite this speaker
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This is slightly different. This is you asking to speak to these students and this group saying no
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Do you see a distinction between those two particular situations? I think there is a slight distinction, yes
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But what I would say is that this issue at Bangor is a wider theme and the wider context
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So, for example, if you take my tour, I was protesting when I went to York University
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400 people came out to protest me. They were marching in the street
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Now quite frankly Tom I a pretty minuscule figure You know I not a huge figure on the political scene but the fact that 400 people came out to protest somebody who is supportive of the leading political party in Britain I think that is very clear that on university campuses and with students in general
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that there is a real problem of listening to alternative viewpoints. That does seem to be the case. But what are they afraid of, Ben? Because exactly as Jack said
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it's about listening to different viewpoints, even if you thought they were homophobic or all
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those things, you would discuss, debate and explain to them why they're wrong
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Well, they can pretty much switch on to any mainstream media channel and hear the dry
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views of reform being repeated again and again ad nauseum. Like they don't want to platform a party that wants to cut the minimum wage for young workers
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You know, they don't like you. Get over it. It's not a free speech issue. And bear in mind, these are university students
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They're not media trained. But you know who is media trained? Nigel Farage. and he's still running away from his debate with Zach Polanski
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Zach Polanski's challenged him multiple times. It's like pick on someone your own size
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rather than some poor students who just want to decide who they can debate with
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which is their right. Surely they're running their own university, like debating society
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They control it democratically. That's the way it should be. But their ethos is that they're happy to have opposing views
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and clashes, which is one of the words that's used in there. So I just don't get what they're afraid of
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And if what Jack has to say is so bad, well, then you would surely listen to it and tell him that it's so bad
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Why are you closing off the opportunity to hear something that you don't like to hear
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If he's even going to tell you something you don't like to hear, you don't know. Well, obviously, I don't, you know, personally
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I don't have a problem with debating with Jack or anybody else from reform
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My point is that these university students are not media trained, and Jack presumably is, and so is Sarah Pogen
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I'm happy that you think I have. But you also very experienced Like a lot of these people are university students 18 19 who are like taking their first step into debating But that how you get experience I ran a university debating society
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But that's how you get experience. You listen to things that you don't agree with, you learn new things, and you gain new experiences
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That's the whole word, experience. Experience. So maybe Nigel Farage should gain the new experience
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Sorry, I'm sorry, Jack, I'll come to you in just a second. Ben, finish your point. Sorry
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So maybe Nigel Farage could gain the new experience of debating with Zach Polanski, these national media figures, rather than us trying to police what a university debating society will and won't allow in their own space
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OK, let's go back to Jack now. So myself and Sarah were attending the university or wanting to attend the university in good faith
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We are not there to sort of duncan students or embarrass students
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We were there to discuss perfectly reasonable political points and have a debate and a discussion with students
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And as for the Zach Polanski, Nigel Farage debate, Nigel Farage is on a whole other level to Zach Polanski
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so I'm not sure it's necessary. He's spineless. He really is spineless
6:49
I don't think that's fair to say he's spineless. Nigel Farage takes all the questions from the press, pretty much
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Kirstama, you know, half of the Labour Party won't even come on GB News
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Although I think Nigel Farage knows from bitter experience that the person who succeeds in a debate is the challenger, usually
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You know, when Nigel Farage debated Nick Clegg on LBC in 2014
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that was the deputy prime minister debating a guy leading a party
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with no MPs and a few hundred councillors. I mean, it did the world of good for Nigel Farage
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his platform and all the rest of it. Perhaps he worries that that could do the same with Polanski
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Who knows? But this is a university. Students are there to learn, and that's to open their minds to different views
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And if you shun people away because you think you know what they're going to say
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when you don't actually know. And some of the things you said actually were slightly wrong, Ben
7:40
Then it's not really, you know, nobody learns anything
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