Andrew Neil’s GB News is hiring as unemployment surges. Can it shake up broadcast media?

The channel has £60m in start-up funding. New media ventures have a spotty record, so its backers may have to be prepared to add to their investment, writes James Moore

The feared former BBC political interviewer is a host and the chair of GB News (PA)

As yet another grim batch of unemployment figures are released – the official jobless total of 1.72m is the highest in five years – there are at least some people out there hiring.

GB News, the new channel led by Andrew Neil, has been billed in some places as a UK equivalent of Fox News: just what a deeply divided country grappling with Covid-19, the aftermath of Brexit, and even its potential break-up doesn’t need.

The channel has launched a search for 140 “disrupters and innovators” to help it succeed in its bid to shake up TV news and reach the parts of the nation supposedly underserved by established broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky.