GB News is embroiled in a Tory bias row tonight after announcing Suella Braverman will be interviewed by her own party’s deputy chair – just a week after the right-wing news channel was sanctioned over impartiality.
Lee Anderson, the divisive Ashfield MP will meet the home secretary for a cosy sit down after her return from the US, where she delivered a speech calling for a crackdown on gay and female asylum seekers.
The interview comes as the channel faces a separate investigation after Dan Wootton’s show drew thousands of complaints when guest Laurence Fox said he “would not want to shag” a female journalist.
Despite the ongoing probe, and the channel’s recent sanction for the number of Tory MPs interviewing ministers, Mr Anderson will press ahead with the pally discussion.
He said on Twitter: “Watch me tomorrow on GB News interview Suella Braverman in her first interview on British soil since her landmark speech this week in the US.”
GB News was found to have breached impartiality rules when chancellor Jeremy Hunt was interviewed by married Tory MPs Esther McVey and backbencher Philip Davies ahead of his spring budget in March.
Ofcom’s rules say: “News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality. No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified.”
Ofcom said GB News should have “taken additional steps to ensure that due impartiality was preserved” and found that “the programme was overwhelmingly reflective of the viewpoints of different strands of opinion within the Conservative Party”.
It added: “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.”
Gavin Barwell, former No 10 chief of staff under Theresa May, also questioned why Tory MPs were interviewing each other on TV. “This increasing trend for politicians to be interviewed by their colleagues is sus,” he tweeted.
Tory MPs Lee Anderson and Jacob Rees-Mogg have their own shows— (PA)
Senior Tory MP Caroline Nokes earlier called for GB News to be taken off air – as she attacked her Conservative colleagues for “swanning off” to host shows on the channel.
The equalities select committee chair said it is “very odd” for colleagues such as Mr Anderson and Jacob Rees-Mogg to have presenting gigs while they have a “day job to do”.
Ms Nokes was highly critical of the broadcaster after it aired “blatantly misogynistic, outdated, hideous attitudes” displayed by Mr Wootton and Mr Fox towards journalist Ava Evans.
“I think there is a really serious case to answer and I hope that Ofcom can conclude its investigations as swiftly as possible,” she told Newsnight. “I think it should be taken off air.”
Ofcom’s latest probe into GB News is looking at whether offence caused by former actor Mr Fox’s remarks - during which Mr Wootton laughed - about a female journalist were “justified by the context”.
Both Mr Fox and Mr Wootton have been suspended by GB News, and Wootton has been sacked by MailOnline where he had written a regular column since 2021.
The regulator received 7,300 complaints about the interview. Ofcom said it cannot investigate Mr Anderson’s show until it has aired, as it is a post-transmission regulator.
