Prime Minister Sunak’s GB News grilling launches Ofcom investigation

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appearance’s on GB News show last week has called for another investigation by Ofcom into the controversial right-wing channel.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak

The UK media regulator will probe the GB News show – People’s Forum: The Prime Minister, which saw Sunak face a series of questions across a range of topics by an audience live in County Durham on Monday February 12, ahead of the upcoming general election.

The GB News grilling of the PM caused a stir, with approximately 500 complaints filed to Ofcom about the programme. The show covered topics including covid, Ukraine, immigration, housing and the NHS.

During the programme, Sunak said: “Why did I say stopping the boats is one of my five priorities? It’s because I think illegal migration is profoundly unfair. I actually think our country is based on a sense of fairness. We are people that we wait our turn, we put in our fair share. We play by the rules and illegal migration actually breaks that sense of fairness. It erodes a sense of trust in our system.

“And I also think as a matter of compassion, it’s the right thing to do, because there are very vulnerable people who are being exploited by criminal gangs, and tragically, some of them losing their lives. And that isn’t, I think, something that any of us can countenance carrying on.”

The UK watchdog will investigate GB News’ impartiality during the show when dealing with matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy”.

Ofcom’s impartially rules require “that appropriately wide range of significant views must be included and given due weight in such programmes, or in clearly linked and timely programmes”.

During last year, GB News broke Ofcom rules on five occasions out of the several investigations launched by the regulator. Ofcom recently revealed the most-complained about show during 2023 was Dan Wootton Tonight on GB News, with the regulator receiving 8,867 complaints, following Laurence Fox’s misogynistic comments made about journalist Ava Evans.

Before the end of 2023, GB News also announced former PM Boris Johnson will join the channel as a host and producer, playing a key role in its coverage of the UK and US elections.