Times removes Meloni-Badenoch Farage article after denial

The Times has removed an article claiming that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni advised Kemi Badenoch not to work with Nigel Farage, after sources close to Meloni denied the conversation ever took place.

The original piece, written by political editor Steve Swinford, reported that Meloni told Badenoch to be her own woman and stand her ground against Reform UK. It was a prominent story on the newspaper's website for most of the day, but by the evening the Farage and Reform UK references had been cut, and the article had been substantially rewritten.

The deletion was first highlighted by GB News, which noticed that the revised piece made no mention of Farage or Reform UK. The broadcaster also reported that Euronews had since quoted sources from Meloni's Brothers of Italy party saying the Italian prime minister never suggested to Badenoch that she should not ally with Farage or his party.

The timing of the removal raised questions. The article was taken down without any form of correction or editor's note, which is unusual for a major newspaper like The Times. Several observers, including former editor Raheem Kassam, called on the paper to explain why the story had been changed so dramatically and whether the original source had been false.

Kassam, a long-time ally of Nigel Farage, said that in nearly two decades of political media experience he had never seen a story altered so completely without a correction. He asked whether the information had come from Badenoch's team or from the paper itself, and urged the public to demand an answer.

The Conservative Party responded to a request for comment from GB News by saying: "What the Times writes is a decision for them, not us." The Times itself has not issued a public explanation for the change.

The incident comes against a backdrop of rising tensions between the Conservative and Reform parties. Badenoch has described a potential deal with Reform as a "monstrosity", while Farage has dismissed the idea. But the central factual claim of the original article has been now been thrown into question by the Italian sources and the quiet rewrite.

The story has become a media accountability issue, with questions about whether the Times will issue a retraction or clarify how the error, if it was an error, occurred.