Reform backs down on ‘Trumpian’ defunding threat after Bangor debating society bans MP

Splits have appeared among Reform politicians after the party’s Shadow Home Secretary, Zia Yusuf, threatened to pull funding from Bangor University, after its Debating and Political Society barred a Reform MP. 

The society had refused a request on 9 February for a Q&A session by Sarah Pochin, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, and Gen Z campaigner Jack Anderton on the grounds of Reform’s “racism, transphobia [and] homophobia”. 

Yusuf, formerly the party’s head of policy, condemned the society’s decision and posted on X: “Bangor receives £30 million in state funding a year, much of which comes from Reform-voting taxpayers. I am sure they won’t mind losing every penny of that state funding under a Reform government.” 

Reform has declined to endorse Yusuf’s defunding threat, with Swansea councillor Francesca O’Brien criticising an “echo chamber” within societies during a BBC Wales debate but clarifying: “We don’t agree with taking the funding away because universities play a vital part in our society.” 

Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf criticised the decision to bar party MP Sarah Pochin from speaking at Bangor University | Image: X

In an open letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Bangor University the following day, Yusuf did not explicitly repeat his call for defunding but expressed “great concern” over the decision, requesting a “public apology and an invitation [to Pochin] to speak at the University”. 

While Yusuf’s comments did not reflect official policy, Reform’s leader in Wales, Dan Thomas, announced that, if victorious in May’s Senedd election, the party will enforce freedom of speech in Welsh universities with new legislation backing financial sanctions for offending institutions. 

Opposition politicians were quick to condemn Yusuf’s comments, with Labour’s Calum Higgins suggesting that threats to university funding followed “in Trump’s footsteps” and Plaid Cymru’s Nerys Evans branding the intervention “shocking”. 

Bangor University distanced itself from the society’s actions and stressed that the university ‘remains politically natural and supports freedom of speech’

Evans added: “This is going to be the political discourse up until the Senedd election. If it’s freedom of speech, if it’s stuff to do with climate change, stuff to do with the Welsh language – if you don’t agree with Reform, your funding is going to be cut.” 

In a statement issued on 11 February, Bangor University distanced itself from the society’s actions and stressed that the university “remains politically neutral and supports freedom of speech”. It added that it “welcomes debate from across the political spectrum which, of course, includes Reform UK.” 

Bangor’s Students’ Union (SU) also struck a conciliatory tone, stressing the relative independence of societies while emphasising that the Union remains “politically neutral” and “supports freedom of speech”.

SU hustings for the Senedd election will go ahead “impartially” and involve “all political parties”, the statement continued. 

Student opposition to a Reform presence at universities most recently hit the headlines after George Finch, the Warwickshire County Council Leader, was rushed by a protester while speaking at Warwick’s campus. This followed a survey in January which found that one-third of students supported barring Reform UK speakers from campuses.