The official Brexit campaign excluded Channel 4 News from its rally on Sunday amid complaints from its chief spin doctor that he was unhappy with the tone of the programme’s coverage.
Vote Leave’s head of press, Robert Oxley, criticised Channel 4 News political correspondent Michael Crick and refused to admit him and his colleagues to the event at the Old Billingsgate fish market in London, at which Boris Johnson and Michael Gove spoke.
Oxley told the programme’s political team that the rally, which ended up being sparsely attended, was oversubscribed. “Furthermore, all Michael Crick does is take the piss,” he told one of the programme’s producers.
It is not the first time Crick has had a run-in with the Brexit campaign. At an event in Salford in April, Boris Johnson – who was giving a speech – urged supporters to interrupt Crick’s live broadcast because it was distracting him.
Speaking to the Guardian, Crick said he had been in the wrong to do the broadcast and said he had privately apologised to the former London mayor and his staff.
In a separate incident, the journalist said he upset Brexit campaigners when he ignored their instructions not to attempt to ask Boris Johnson any questions at a campaign event. “That’s not taking the piss, that’s doing my job,” Crick said.
And, in a third incident, he claimed that Brexit supporters were unhappy when he pointed out that the business hosting an event at which the campaign sought to highlight immigration, itself employed Polish immigrants.
On Sunday, event organisers told a Channel 4 News producer that the news team had not been properly accredited and that there was no room for them. While the journalists had spoken to the Brexit campaign about attending on the phone, they had not sent a request via email, they were told.
Vote Leave said: “Michael’s team were informed that they had failed to accredit for the event thus they were not granted entry.”
Oxley said that Crick had “certainly been disruptive at events, talking over speakers for example”, but insisted he was denied entry because he was not properly accredited.
