A regional daily editor has hit back at a Government whip who tried to “demean” his newspaper’s journalism.

Gavin Foster has urged industry leaders to stand up to politicians after Jacob Young, the Tory MP for Redcar, publicly criticised a story run by the Northern Echo, which he edits.

The Darlington-based Echo had published a story written by local democracy reporter Stuart Arnold, who covers several authorities across the Teesside area under the BBC-funded scheme.

In it, he reported that a Labour member of Redcar and Cleveland Council had claimed that Redcar could miss out on UK Government ‘Town Deal’ funding, despite a spokesman for Mr Young, who was appointed an Assistant Government Whip last month, being quoted in the piece as claiming the deal was “all done”.

Posting a link to the published story on Twitter, Mr Young wrote: “Is this journalism? Government has confirmed £25 million towns fund for Redcar. There has been nothing to suggest that we won’t receive that full amount.”

His remarks prompted Gavin, pictured, to reply saying journalism was “exactly what it is”.

He wrote: “After recent events and departures, reporting on the legitimate concerns of a councillor for the town he was elected to represent in a fair and balanced way is precisely what the Local Democracy Reporting Service was to set up to do.”

The row came ahead of the start of Journalism Matters week, which has seen Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan pledge to “be a champion of journalism in every way I can”.

Speaking to HTFP, Gavin said: “We have seen a number of examples recently of politicians and others in positions of power deriding journalists or news organisations when they draw attention to something which goes against their own messaging or challenges their position. And we have also seen how harmful this can be.

“Today, speaking through the NMA at the start of Journalism Matters Week, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan pledged to become a ‘champion of journalism’ – explaining why what we do is more important than ever against a tide of misinformation from social media.

“And on the other hand, we have the Assistant Government Whip using Twitter to demean a legitimate fair and balanced report from the Local Democracy Service in which he was quoted, because he didn’t like how it was positioned.

“As editors and news organisations we can’t allow this to happen and when politicians seek to dismiss challenges, questions or concerns the electorate or indeed other politicians have by rubbishing reporters and stories it should be called out.”