GB News presenter Guto Harri has called out the struggling news station after resigning from his role.
Earlier this week, Guto was publicly rebuked by GB News after taking the knee live on air, in solidarity with the England footballers who had been subjected to racist abuse since the Euro 2020 final.
Writing in the Sunday Times this weekend, he criticised the broadcaster, and claimed he had been encouraged to take the knee when he first alerted a producer to the fact he would be doing so.
“Immediately before going on air, I mentioned that I was considering making the gesture,” he wrote, noting he was then told: “If you do it, do it to camera three.”
Guto continued: “GB News captured the moment and proudly cascaded it through social media. Watch five minutes of the channel and you’ll see how presenters are encouraged to speak freely, confront sensitive subjects, engage in difficult debates and make a case.
“However, what followed was a tsunami of disappointment, resentment and hate. Old friends were amused to see me described as woke and Marxist. By Thursday night, the boss called and I’d been taken off air for the summer.”
He added that he first joined GB News as a part-time presenter because he “supported the broad vision”, but accused the station of having become an “absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be”.
He wrote: “Rather than defending free speech and confronting cancel culture, it has set out to replicate it on the far right.”
GB News, which launched in June with a supposed emphasis on free speech, said this week that Guto taking the knee was an “unacceptable breach of our standards”.
The Independent reported on Sunday afternoon that Guto has now made the decision to quit GB News altogether, quoting a resignation letter in which he told bosses he felt he had no other option but to resign.
“I now see that you’ve hired Nigel Farage who immediately declared in public that he will not be taking the knee,” a section of the letter reads (via The Independent).
“Please explain how that does not breach editorial standards but I did – so I can share it with my lawyers.”
HuffPost UK has contacted GB News for comment.
GB News returned to the headlines this week, after it was revealed several of its shows had recorded zero viewers in the past week, with reports also claiming that several behind-the-scenes figures were in the process of leaving, in the lead-up to Nigel Farage being announced as a new presenter.
On Friday evening, the station’s chairman Andrew Neil – who announced he was taking a break from GB News two weeks after its launch, and had been completely silent about the channel since 6 July – spoke out in its defence, insisting that it was still “finding its feet”.
The broadcaster was dealt a further blow on Friday afternoon when presenter Alastair Stewart announced he would also be taking a break from GB News after breaking his hip in a horse-riding accident.