GB News mocked after suffering most embarrassing fail yet

‘This would be funny if it wasn’t so hideous,’ one person wrote

People are reacting to the latest embarrassing GB News blunder.

This week, the channel reportedly received a grand total of zero viewers for some of its broadcasts following a boycott due to presenter Guto Harri taking the knee in support of the England football team.

According to Barb, an official television ratings agency, the broadcasts that attracted no views were the ones presented by former Labour MP Gloria De Pier and business editor Liam Halligan, which airs for 30 minutes from 1pm on Wednesdays, and another at 5pm led by Simon McCoy and Ukip spokesperson Alex Phillips.

After the channel’s viewers criticised Harri’s decision to take the knee, the channel tweeted on Thursday (15 July): “GB News stands four square against racism in all its forms. We do not have a company line on taking the knee. Some of our guests have been in favour, some against. All are anti-racist. We have editorial standards that all GB News journalists uphold.”

However, the channel caused confusion after completely reneging on this in reply to its own tweet, calling Harri’s act “an unacceptable breach of our standards”.

They added: “We let both sides of the argument down by oversimplifying a very complex issue.”

The sentiment caused the channel to be heavily criticised on social media, with British comedian Danny Wallace writing: “Anti-racism gestures made in solidarity with an abused English national football team are an unacceptable breach of GB News standards, got it.”

Guto Harri took the knee in support of England’s Black football players (GB News)

Another critic added: “This would be funny if it wasn’t so hideous, and if it didn’t confirm what we knew all along… that what the GB News ilk mean by ‘free speech’ is just free license to be a bigot without consequence or call out.”

A large number of people lampooned the channel for its contradictory tweets, which journalist Scott Bryan joked gave him “whiplash”.

Another quipped: “I’m sure your viewer was outraged.”

The Independent has contacted a GB News representative for comment.