UK Brexit champion Nigel Farage to return to right-wing TV station

LONDON: Leading Brexiteer Nigel Farage will return to the right-wing television news channel GB News as one of its...
12 Jul, 2024

LONDON: Leading Brexiteer Nigel Farage will return to the right-wing television news channel GB News as one of its star presenters just two weeks after being elected to the UK parliament.

“Guess who’s back!” GB News wrote on X late Thursday alongside a picture of the eurosceptic politician, adding he would return “next week”.

Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, finally won a seat in parliament at last week’s general election on his eighth attempt.

Media reports said 60-year-old was expected to broadcast three times a week.

GB News has become a popular platform for the UK’s right wing since its launch in June 2021, drawing comparisons with US network Fox News.

Farage had stepped back from his Monday-Thursday show in May to give him more time to campaign for his party.

The channel has attracted controversy for flouting news impartiality rules, and last October sacked two of its presenters after an on-air sexism row.

The channel has previously made no secret of its desire to appeal to Brexit voters who backed the UK’s departure from the European Union, claiming their views were ignored by mainstream channels.

Nigel Farage wins seat in UK parliament

Earlier this year, the UK’s broadcast regulator found that Conservative Party politicians broke impartiality rules five times by acting as news reporters, interviewers and presenters on GB News.

Last year the broadcaster announced that it had signed up former prime minister Boris Johnson as a presenter, programme maker and commentator.

From previously having no seats at the Westminster parliament, Reform UK picked up five seats and 14 percent of the vote in a political breakthrough at last week’s general election.

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