GB News: Ofcom rules breached over Richard Tice interview

GB News breached impartiality rules in an interview with Reform Party leader Richard Tice, Ofcom has found.

Former Brexit MEP Martin Daubney, who was presenting Laurence Fox's now defunct show on 16 June, was discussing immigration policy with Mr Tice.

The regulator found that Mr Tice was not "sufficiently challenged" on his views and "the limited alternative views presented were dismissed".

GB News accepted the content was not compliant.

Ofcom investigated after receiving a complaint about the programme earlier this year.

GB News said that the intention of the production team had been to preserve due impartiality through the inclusion of challenging questioning during the interview, but that this had not happened to a sufficient extent. It apologised for the breaches.

Daubney, who is also a former deputy leader of the Reclaim Party, said the government "has lost the plot on illegal immigration" as the story was introduced, accompanied by text on screen reading: "Migration Nation".

He went on to challenge the effectiveness of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Stop the Boats policy, adding that things can "get a lot worse if Labour get into power because like Rishi, Keir Starmer likes to talk tough on borders, but like Rishi, he'll be another chocolate teapot".

"We no longer know who walks among us. Of course, they're not all bad apples. Some may genuinely be fleeing war zones, but they could have claimed asylum in France."

He went on: "Today we say, it's time to declare a state of emergency. it's time to close our borders to illegals. It's time to make Britain safe again," before inviting the audience to get in touch with their views.

Mr Tice was then introduced to the show by Daubney as "an old sparring partner of mine in Brussels".

The Reform Party leader said: "We should definitely declare there is a national security threat... you then make it absolutely clear that zero are allowed to resettle here." He went on to describe the government as "weak... feeble... and gutless".

Daubney did add, "let's have a bit of balance" and said people will say "lawyers won't stand for" a state of emergency.

The pair then discussed the Reform Party's policy on immigration and the cost involved, before moving on to floating barges to house asylum seekers.

A later interview in the programme featured Dr Rakib Ehsan, who agreed with Mr Tice about declaring a state of emergency "on our borders".

Ofcom said it recognised that, "in accordance with the right to freedom of expression, broadcasters have editorial freedom and can offer audiences innovative forms of discussion and debate.

"However, in light of the likely similarity of the views of the participants in this programme on the major matter being discussed, the licensee should have taken additional steps to ensure that due impartiality was preserved."

The watchdog noted that "in particular, Mr Tice was allowed to present Reform UK's policies on a matter of major political controversy and major matter relating to current public policy without significant challenge from Mr Daubney. We also took into account that Mr Daubney and Mr Tice presented similar views on the matters being discussed".

The watchdog noted that Daubney did provide some comments "which to some extent, presented a different perspective to the one expressed by Mr Tice" but "alternative perspectives... were extremely limited".

Ofcom added: "We expect GB News to take careful account of this decision in its compliance of future programming."

GB News said that it intended for Daubney "to provide critical questioning of Mr Tice and, in the absence of an interviewee offering an alternative perspective, to subject his views to close scrutiny".

It added that Daubney began to do this, including "one instance" where he referred to the need for "balance" in the debate and "raised the views of people who might object to the strong measures he was proposing".

The channel, however, accepted that "this approach was not wholly successful".

GB News said that relevant staff "will receive further training focused on the issues raised by this broadcast".

Ofcom said that it has "12 further investigations open into GB News, which we are working to conclude as quickly as possible".

Several GB News programmes have recently been found in breach of Ofcom's rules.

Fox, for whom Daubney was standing in, has now been sacked by the channel over comments he made about a female journalist.