"As if I would touch him with a barge pole!"

If you really want "free", don't touch Sky with a barge pole.

But we don't touch this kind of story with a barge pole.

The first is of no value, and the second I would not touch with a barge pole.

I shouldn't wish to touch you, not even with the proverbial barge pole.

There is also a popular saying: "I wouldn't touch that thing with a barge pole!"

The obvious topic was the play the night before and she wouldn't touch that with a barge pole.

He wouldn't touch a tom with a barge pole.

No woman of taste would have touched him with a barge pole.

It appears that the association with a barge pole came after the phrase was in use.