GB News is being investigated over a possible breach of impartiality rules, after two senior Conservative MPs interviewed the chancellor before the spring budget on its channel.
Jeremy Hunt sat down for an interview with the former Tory cabinet minister Esther McVey, who is still the MP for Tatton, and her husband, Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley, on Saturday 11 March for their weekly show.
Ofcom has announced that it will investigate whether the show broke the media watchdog’s rules “requiring news and current affairs to be presented with due impartiality”.
It added: “Our investigation will look at the programme’s compliance with our rules on politicians presenting programmes, and whether it included an appropriately wide range of significant views relating to a matter of major political controversy or current public policy.”
After the interview was aired, the Scottish National party MP John Nicolson, who sits on the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee, said the “love-in” interview was “surely a flagrant breach of Ofcom’s rules”.
Writing for Open Democracy, Nicolson claimed McVey and Davies “used their regular Saturday show on GB News to interview the Tory chancellor about how good the Tory budget was”. He added: “The interview was trailed by HM Treasury on its social media pages.”
Ofcom’s chief executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, initially refused to be drawn on whether McVey and Davies should have been permitted to interview the Conservative chancellor.
But after an appearance before the DCMS committee, Dawes said in a statement that serving politicians “are allowed to present other kinds of shows, however, including current affairs”, adding: “Sometimes those programmes may be on channels that also broadcast news; what matters here is the format of the particular show.”
Ofcom has also confirmed that it will not pursue 40 complaints about due impartiality made about the Tory MP Nadine Dorries’s interview with the former prime minister Boris Johnson on 3 February.
The watchdog said it had “exceptionally” decided to publish the reasons for its decision because its assessment involved “matters of public interest”.
A spokesperson said: “In our view, the combination of prerecorded interview, in-depth studio analysis and panel discussion within this long-form programme was consistent with a current affairs format.
“At the time of broadcast, Ms Dorries was not standing in an election taking place, or about to take place.
“A range of alternative viewpoints, providing challenge and context to those of Mr Johnson, his government and the Conservative party more generally, were reflected in the studio panel discussions, which were interspersed between each segment of the interview with the former prime minister.
“Given this, the programme did not raise issues under our rules preventing politicians from presenting news programmes, or those concerning due impartiality.”
A number of serving Conservative MPs currently host TV programmes. Dorries, a former culture secretary, presents a Friday night talkshow for TalkTV, while the Tory MP for North East Somerset, Jacob Rees-Mogg, fronts a regular programme for GB News.
The shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, said the employment of serving MPs as presenters was “very concerning”, adding that Ofcom “should be looking at these issues”.
Last month it was revealed that GB News breached rules on potentially harmful content when the presenter Mark Steyn used official health data to draw misleading conclusions about the Covid-19 booster that “materially misled” the audience, according to Ofcom.
• This article was amended on 4 April 2023. Nicolson was writing in Open Democracy, not East Anglia Bylines as an earlier version said.
