Neil is out of GB News af ter just two weeks!
(But he’s only taking a break)
VETERAN GB News presenter Andrew Neil is taking a break from the channel – less than two weeks after its ‘rocky’ launch.
The former BBC political interviewer and now GB News chairman told viewers he would be off for ‘the next few weeks’.
Neil, 72, said last night: ‘I’m simply taking a break to replenish my batteries after the rigours of the launch. Plus I have other business matters to attend to.
‘I’ll be back before the summer is out, brimming with ideas for the channel and my own show.
‘I will also be in close contact with management and the board through my break. And even ready to appear should news events demand it.’
The GB News launch was hit by a far-Left campaign urging advertisers to boycott the channel. It has also experienced technical glitches.
Neil accused big brands which pulled advertising of being ‘in thrall’ to ‘far-Left agitators and cranks’.
‘Woke nonsense has reached the boardroom and corporate capitalism is becoming the useful idiot of bigots bent on censorship,’ he said.
Brands including Ikea and Vodafone halted ads after a campaign by the Stop Funding Hate group which began before the channel had even aired.
But many later performed Uturns, insisting the move was not a boycott and they first wanted to assess the output of GB News.
Speaking during his show on Thursday night, Neil said: ‘Yes, we had a bit of a rocky start at the launch. We’re a start-up. They’re always a bit rocky, these start-ups.’
But he said the channel was ‘up and running’ and getting ‘better every day’, adding there was ‘clearly an appetite for what we’re doing’.
Neil said GB News was ‘often bigger than the other news channels’ in the ratings, having beaten the BBC News channel and Sky News.
He said it had already built a loyal audience which had ‘beaten all of our expectations’ and told viewers: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’.
Neil’s show, which airs from 8pm, will be covered by former Sky News presenter Colin Brazier.
GB News is trying to provide an alternative to Left-leaning rivals such as the BBC. Earlier this week an Ofcom boss said he had not seen anything ‘problematic’ on GB News.
The regulator’s group director of content and media policy, Kevin Bakhurst, said there was ‘nothing that would worry me as a regulator’ about
its content.
‘We had a bit of a rocky start’