Johnson to join right-wing broadcaster GB News

LONDON: Britain´s former prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Friday that he was joining the right-wing broadcaster GB News, the latest Conservative politician to take a presenting role on the contentious channel.

The scandal-tarred Johnson, who was ousted from power last year by Tory MPs and quit as a lawmaker in June, will start his new “presenter, programme maker and commentator” post in early 2024, GB News said.

The channel was launched in mid-2021, billing itself as a right-wing, pro-Brexit competitor to mainstream broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky News, and has stoked controversy ever since. It has drawn comparisons to the US network Fox News for its unabashedly populist agenda, blurring the distinction between fact-based reporting and opinion while hiring high-profile right-wingers.

In its latest setback, the channel sacked two of its presenters this month after an on-air sexism row that generated nearly 8,500 complaints to media watchdog Ofcom. Ofcom has opened several probes into GB News over alleged breaches of the broadcasting code of neutrality for TV news outlets, after its hiring of several prominent members of the ruling Conservatives as presenters.