‘Free of the shackles’: Michael Grade’s GB News defence raises concerns over relaxing of Ofcom rules

In a recent interview, Lord Grade said of meeting broadcasting rules: ‘It’s not difficult to comply; sometimes it’s only a sentence in a script.’ Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty

Regulators are not generally known for courting controversy. When the day job involves making delicate, legally fraught decisions, they tend to be a circumspect bunch.

However, since stepping down as chair of Ofcom, one of Britain’s most scrutinised watchdogs, the Conservative peer Michael Grade has been doing his best to buck that stereotype. “I’m free of the shackles,” he recently said.