Anna Isaac

You should have contacted someone else.

And then we got a response from their lawyers asking for more time.

So we gave them an additional 24 hours and then they made a decision that they would give an interview to a different newspaper to try and get ahead of the story.

So that was their approach.

And that was Reform UK's approach.

And we did contact lawyers acting for Christopher Harbourn.

having been in touch with some of his businesses.

And they asked for more time.

We also granted them that.

And then he also made a decision to give an interview to a different paper.

So they actually didn't respond to what we call either your invitation to comment or your right of reply in journo jargon.

Yes, that's a decision they made.

You all know from, you know, you've put in many a right of reply, I'm sure.

This is good practice, right?

We as journalists, we go to people that are subject to a story and we ask them for their account, you know, explanation of events, if there's any comment they might add, any context they might add, because you can get a piece of information as a journalist, but that context that someone might be able to offer you can be absolutely critical.

So it's a really important part of a reasonable, good, fair journalistic practice to do that.

But it's tricky if people choose not to engage.

Well, I always act in accordance with our editorial code at The Guardian.

We have very strong ethical practices here.

It's very, very important to us that everything we do is above board and absolutely critically in the public interest.