IN DEPTH
Andrew Neil quits GB News: what next for the
‘Farage Channel’?
Veteran broadcaster presented only eight programmes
for the floundering station
KATE
SAMUELSON
14 SEP 2021
The face of
GB News has announced his resignation just three months after masterminding the
launch of the channel.
Veteran
broadcaster Andrew Neil left the BBC last year to become the chair and lead
presenter of the right-leaning station, but hosted only eight programmes before
announcing his resignation last night.
“I am sorry
to go but I have concluded it’s time to reduce my commitments on a number of
fronts,” he said in a statement. “Over the summer I’ve had time to reflect on
my extensive portfolio of interests and decided it was time to cut back.”
He added:
“I wish GB News well in continuing to fulfil its founding promise and mission
to reach audiences currently underserved by existing news broadcasters.”
A statement
from GB News said that Neil would continue to contribute “as a regular guest
commentator” until early next year. He announced his resignation less than two
hours before making his debut as a pundit on Nigel Farage’s nightly 7pm show on
the channel.
Neil “said
he would remain as a twice-weekly contributor” to Farage’s show, The Guardian
reported, the but “did not discuss his departure from GB News” .
Ironically,
twice-weekly appearances would represent a major uptick in those put in my Neil
so far. Following the June launch, he was on air for less than two weeks before
announcing that he was taking a break.
“To go on a
summer holiday after just eight programmes naturally attracted attention, and
when that holiday continued for more than two months, it was clear something
was going on,” said the BBC’s media and arts correspondent David Sillito.
The terms
of Neil’s departure from the channel are unknown, but “multiple GB News sources
claim the process was the subject of lengthy legal wrangling after the
breakdown in his relationship with the station’s chief executive, Angelos
Frangopoulos”, according to The Guardian.
The Times
reported that their relationship “soured dramatically” after the “calamitous”
launch, was marred by technical difficulties.
Neil’s
departure has fuelled speculation about the future of the floundering channel,
which “has struggled in the ratings, with some programmes registering as having
zero viewers”, added The Guardian.
Three
senior GB News producers reportedly quit last week, and insiders claimed that
other “senior members of staff were now considering their positions following
Mr Neil’s exit”, said The Telegraph.
The
72-year-old journalist is believed to have played a key role in recruiting
other noted TV personalities including Simon McCoy and Kirsty Gallacher to the
channel ahead of its launch.
Newsroom
sources told The Times that former BBC News anchor McCoy had been “openly
unhappy” about the increasingly populist direction of GB News, “and its
persistent technical problems and errors”. Former Sky Sports News presenter
Gallacher is also said to have grown frustrated.
And the
station is expected to swing further to the right following the departure of
Neil. “Sensationalist voices” including Ann Widdecombe and Martin Daubney, both
former Brexit Party politicians, are “poised” to join the station, said The
Times. A source told the paper: “The idea that we aren’t Fox News is
increasingly laughable.”
Piers
Morgan, who left his role as a presenter on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in
March, is believed to have been offered a seven-figure deal to join too, but is
reportedly “still considering his options”.
For now,
former Brexit Party leader Farage - who was hired by the channel in July in the
hope of reversing its plummeting viewing figures - is continuing to draw GB
News’s biggest audience.
“GB News is
now Farage News, and not in a good way. It’s unwatchable,” wrote Sean O’Grady
in The Independent following Neil’s resignation announcement.
“I can’t
say I blame Neil for getting out,” O'Grady added. “He used to be editor of The
Sunday Times, for God’s sake. I have no doubt he’d not want to spend the rest
of his professional life playing second fiddle to Nigel Farage.”
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