GB News breached impartiality rules when two Conservative MPs interviewed the chancellor before the spring budget and “failed to represent a wide range of significant views”, Ofcom has found.
Esther McVey, a former pensions minister, and her husband Philip Davies, a longstanding MP, were accused of hosting a “love-in” interview with Jeremy Hunt on 11 March for their weekly morning show on the channel.
The pre-recorded interview aired on a two-hour long programme, Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip, prompted 45 complaints over its failure to preserve impartiality.
GB News said the programme was delivered in an “interesting and innovative fashion”. The channel added it was disappointed by the broadcasting watchdog’s decision and called Ofcom’s definition of impartiality “imprecise”.
After an investigation launched in April, Ofcom found that the programme was “overwhelmingly reflective of the viewpoints of different strands of opinion within the Conservative party”.
The watchdog said on Monday: “There were only very limited references to wider perspectives on UK economic and fiscal policy in the context of the forthcoming budget.
“For example, no real attention was given anywhere in the programme to the viewpoints of politicians, political parties, organisations or individuals that either, for example, criticised, opposed or put forward policy alternatives to the viewpoints given by the three Conservative politicians.”
The channel “should have taken additional steps to ensure that due impartiality was preserved” since the programme featured “two sitting MP presenters from one political party interviewing the chancellor of the same political party about a matter of major political controversy and current public policy”.
During the interview, McVey asked Hunt if he was “embarrassed, ashamed” to have the “highest levels of taxation in modern history”.
Ofcom’s ruling on Monday marks GB News’ third breach since it launched in June 2021. GB News said in a statement: “We are disappointed by Ofcom’s ruling on our programme, Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil. We feel that the regulator’s definition of ‘due impartiality’ is imprecise.”
“Ofcom’s finding also accepts that our programme included ‘reference to a wider range of views’ in its interview with chancellor Jeremy Hunt before his budget in March.
“These included opinions from independent journalist and commentator Michael Crick and SDP politician Patrick O’Flynn, who disagreed with Mr Hunt on several key points.
“Our programme featured a range of views from our audience, and from two business owners who offered different perspectives on how the issues would affect them. Our two presenters, both Conservative MPs, also challenged Mr Hunt.
“GB News chose to be regulated by Ofcom, and we are proud to play our part in bringing a wider range of opinion to Britain’s media landscape. We take compliance seriously, and we believe our programme embraced this. We will reflect on Ofcom’s view.”
