GB News critics want to limit free speech to metropolitan liberal elite, ex-Ofcom chief says

Critics of GB News are attempting to limit free speech to the metropolitan liberal elite, an ex-head of Ofcom has claimed.

Lord Michael Grade recently departed from the chair of the British media watchdog and said he welcomed the arrival of the People’s Channel in the name of "plurality".

In an interview with the Guardian, Lord Grade stated that a long-term lack of “the white majority a voice in the debate” would damage social integration within the UK.

The Conservative peer said: “The fact is, what people don’t like is the fact that there is a television station giving voice to a strong body of opinion in this country which has been ignored for years.

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“They just don’t like the idea that there’s any voice or any agenda, news agenda, which is different from the kind of liberal, Islington consensus.

Lord Grade was appointed to his role by Boris Johnson’s government in 2022.

When questioned about Ofcom’s approach to regulating GB News, Lord Grade spoke of a recent interview by Tony Sewell, who oversaw a report on racial disparity by Mr Johnson’s government.

He continued: “If you want integration, which we all do, and we want everybody to live happily ever after, irrespective of their background or their race or religion or anything, [Sewell] said that you have to give the white majority a voice in that debate.

“I hung on to that and I thought: ‘That is so brilliant. That’s why Reform is doing well in the polls.’ Of course it’s right.”

He went on to claim that it “certainly hasn’t” been the case that the voice of “the white majority” has been proportionally heard in recent times.

He also believed that the BBC has had a history of being out of touch with the public.

He went on to claim: “It’s the London metropolitan elite argument again.

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“The BBC missed Thatcherism, when [Margaret] Thatcher happened … They were so buried in this traditional, metropolitan-elite Westminster bubble.

“They couldn’t see it, and they missed it completely.”

He reaffirmed that Ofcom rules require due impartiality, allowing for a range of opinions across its programmes, with the major issues coming from politicians delivering news bullitins.

Lord Grade said: “What these … people do not understand – these alleged upholders of free speech and freedom of expression, but they want to close down a news broadcaster – they want the regulator to have the power to say who can and can’t appear on these programmes.

“That’s for the birds. That should never be allowed to happen.

“Just because it’s called GB News doesn’t mean that all their programmes are news.

“They’re discussion programmes, they’re political chat shows. We could argue this forever, but we’re dancing on the head of a pin. It’s irrelevant really.

“The real point is... you don’t get any politicians delivering the news”

He concluded: “Impartiality is a state of grace to which you aspire. And as long as you’re aspiring and seem to be trying to be impartial, that’s fine. One person’s impartiality is another person’s bias.”

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