Andrew Neil has compared GB News to a “UKIP tribute band” and said the Discovery-backed news channel, which he split from acrimoniously over the summer, may “fall into irrelevance and obscurity” if…
to a “UKIP tribute band” and said the Discovery-backed news channel, which he split from acrimoniously over the summer, may “fall into irrelevance and obscurity” if it doesn’t sort production values and ratings.
Neil said he doesn’t want the news channel to be the “full stop on my career” as he hinted at a return to TV news but denied he will take a presenting role on Rupert Murdoch’s forthcoming Talk TV, which is set to feature Piers Morgan as lead host. Speaking candidly at Freeview’s Outside the Box event on the news channel he fronted and helped found earlier this year, Neil said the “shambles of the launch” will haunt GB News for months, having lost many of its founding editors and presenters swiftly.If the channel fails to overcome its production and ratings’ troubles, it could “fall into irrelevance and obscurity,” he said.
Neil described GB News as a “UKIP tribute band” that is now dominated by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and said his “fundamental mistake was to get into bed with people who said they shared my vision but didn’t,” people who wanted to take GB News in a Fox News-style direction. Neil’s preference was for GB News to occupy the centre/centre-right space, he added, as he railed against the “metropolitan big city approach” of the other major UK news channels such as