As GB News celebrates its fifth birthday, the broadcaster – where Reform leader Nigel Farage hosts a weekly show – is being outflanked by Restore backers on the hard right
is driving viewers from GB News to YouTube channels even further to the right, insiders say, as the insurgent broadcaster celebrates its fifth birthday. Despite racking up total losses of £131m – and receiving a £100,000 Ofcom fine after repeated impartiality breaches – a bullish GB News has promised it will become “the UK’s biggest news channel” by 2028.
But its dominance of the right-wing space faces a new threat from YouTube channels tacking to the hard right, inspired by the rise of Lowe’s Restore Britain movement. Insiders say the feud between Farage and Lowe – an MP forced out of Reform after a public showdown between the two – has left GB News looking like an “establishment” channel, as hot-button issues likeLowe claims Farage is using his influence at GB News – where he is a minority shareholder and hosts a prime-time weeknight show – to “ban” him from appearing live on the channel.
The feud between Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage could drive GB News viewers to more right-wing rivals Lowe was last invited to appear on GB News in April, where he was interviewed by former Conservative minister Jacob Rees-Mogg. Restore later complained that the interview was pre-recorded and said critical remarks Lowe made about Farage were edited out.
Granted limited airtime on regulated TV channels, Lowe turned to X and Facebook, where he has 800,000 and 1.3m followers respectively, to build his profile as his party His videos, calling for the deportation of illegal immigrants and a ban on wearing the burqa, are regularly amplified by influential supporters, As a licenced TV channel, GB News must abide by Ofcom’s rules on due impartiality, harm and offence. Shows on YouTube and social media are not bound by the regulator, which gives them free rein to air any opinions they like, although YouTube is still required to protect users from hate speech.
GB News recorded an average TV viewing audience of 100,000 in May but has 2.2m YouTube subscribers and 5m TikTok followers. , set up by Dan Wootton, the GB News presenter who quit after Ofcom found that his show allowed “misogynistic” remarks about a female journalist. Mike Graham, a veteran broadcaster sacked by TalkTV for failing to co-operate with an investigation into a racist post on his Facebook account, is also now becoming a prominent right-wing YouTuber.
His daily breakfast show,Winston Marshall, the former Mumford & Sons musician and son of GB News co-owner, hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall, has become an influential right-wing commentator whose twice-weekly YouTube show has 474,000 subscribers. The younger Marshall’s call for a mine-laden “floating wall” to stop Channel migrant-boat crossings caused widespread controversy.
: “In the half a decade since its launch, the editorial purpose of GB News has sadly changed to become effectively a propaganda outfit for Reform UK and put Nigel Farage in Downing Street. Many hosts are holding private conversations about running for Reform UK or taking roles in a Reform UK government.
“The emergence of Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain upsets that plan, hence his virtual ban from the channel. But for a channel which claims to be pro-free speech, it’s clearly an untenable position. ” Ex-GB News presenter Dan Wootton’s new YouTube channel has hosted Rupert Lowe as a regular guest “The Rupert Lowe ‘ban’ is a massive issue. It’s driving people to other uncensored outlets.
GB News want to pretend he doesn’t exist but that can’t carry on. ” A GB News insider said of Farage: “There are many senior people most unhappy at the power wielded by a solitary presenter. ” The insider feared that GB News was “losing its outsider edge” as the channel seeks to comply with Ofcom rules to maintain its broadcasting licence.
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