Andrew Neil tears into GB News and sends one very stern warning

By Mieka Smiles, News Reporter

Andrew Neil has savaged GB News to Parliament (Image: House of Lords)

The former chairman of GB News, Andrew Neil, has roasted the channel warning that it will not “ever be profitable”.

Neil made the savage comments before a House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee hearing into the future of news earlier today, Tuesday, April 23.

The former BBC presenter - who is chairman of the Spectator - was asked how GB News might be now if he’d not left just two weeks into his time there.

According to the Press Gazette, he said: “First of all, the production values would have been much higher.

“It would not have looked as if it were coming from the nuclear bunker of the president of North Korea."

Andrew Neil is now chairman at The Spectator (Image: Getty)

The channel was dogged by technical issues in its early days which was part of the reason Neil parted ways with the broadcaster.

But he has now revealed that he also didn’t like the values of what he thought the channel was pursuing.

He said: “What I didn’t want it to become – I could see it was happening, which is why I left almost immediately – was an outlet for bizarre conspiracy theories or anti-vaxxers or, basically, the nutty end of politics.”

Neil also said that politicians shouldn’t be presenting on the channel - and certainly not interviewing politicians from the same party.

He said: “I would not have had any politician present a television show in the first place – and I would certainly never have allowed politicians to interview other politicians from the same party. I mean, I just find that incredible”.

Neil went on to say that Ofcom has been very “tolerant” of the channel and that it needs to get “a backbone, and quick.”

He added he was “quite surprised that GB News has survived as long as it has” and “even more surprised that it saw off TalkTV.”

“I think GB News has found, to my surprise, a niche for itself. But it’s not a very big niche, and it’s not a niche that can ever be profitable,” added Neil.

Last week GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos informed staff that it was embarking on a redundancy round and seeking to cut 40 roles. The company is currently asking staff open to voluntary redundancy to come forward.

GB News recorded operating losses of £42.4m in its most recent accounts. This represents a 38 percent increase on the year before. In total the reported losses since its launch are £76m.