GB News Presenter Guto Harri has been suspended for taking the knee – sparking a series of dramatic resignations and further walk-outs rumoured to be on the cards.
The popular news channel sparked a fierce debate this week over Harri taking the knee live on air – with some viewers voicing their outrage, and others arguing that the the entire point of the channel is to broadcast balanced content that supports free speech.
Yesterday, GB News issued the following statement through its Twitter account:
“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.
“On Tuesday a contributing presenter took the knee live on air and this was an unacceptable breach of our standards.
“We let both sides of the argument down by oversimplifying a very complex issue.”
Following Guto’s suspension today, John McAndrew, the channel’s director of programming, quit the station.
Other senior staff are understood to have left in recent days, including Gill Penlington, and the departure of other key off-air figures could be announced imminently, according to sources at the channel.
Adding to Andrew Neil’s mounting headache, popular presenter Alastair Stewart announced that he would be taking a break from the channel after suffering a broken hip.
Neil, the channel’s Chairman, previously acknowledged that the channel had experienced a “rocky start” but said GB News’ audience was growing.
“In two short weeks, we’ve already built a loyal audience which has beaten all of our expectations, it’s often bigger than the other news channels and it’s growing,” he said.
