Andrew Neil has threatened to ban advertisers from his GB News channel after 11 brands said that they were pausing their campaigns until they had reviewed its content.
The channel’s chief presenter issued the warning in an exchange on Twitter with Greg Jackson, the chief executive of Octopus Energy, who said that he wanted to watch the channel before permitting further adverts to appear on it.
Jackson wrote to Neil: “Actually Andrew, I’m watching your interview with Rishi [Sunak, the chancellor] right now. As per my message, we didn’t boycott — I wanted to see the channel and am true to my word.”
Neil responded: “How many other channels have you watched before deciding to advertise? I will be looking at brands to decide if they are fit to advertise with us.”
He said that he would raise the issue in his evening broadcast.
He added: “I resent even the thought that a channel of which I was chairman would peddle hate. You should know better.”
Jackson had sent a message to customers of his energy company explaining that it had not chosen to advertise on GB News, which positions itself as a right-wing “anti-woke” broadcaster. He said that the adverts had been placed by a third party.
Jackson said that although GB News had been compared to the right-wing American news channel Fox News, it was too early to tell whether they were similar. He added: “We do not advertise on platforms whose primary purpose is the distribution of hate.”
The exchange came as Vodafone denied that it was boycotting the channel despite its official Twitter account stating that “advertising [on GB News] has been placed without our permission”.
The phone company clarified that it “wouldn’t normally advertise on a new channel, preferring instead to wait to make a commercial assessment of its quality and reach”.
It added: “With GB News still very much in its infancy, we do not have plans to advertise with them at this stage. Our advertising did however appear on the channel without our permission.
“Political views in the UK are, and have always been, varied. And we have always placed our advertising in a broad spread of media that covers the political spectrum. We firmly believe in free speech, while also standing firmly against hateful and harmful content.”
Other brands to be reviewing advertising are Bosch, Indeed, Pinterest, the insurer LV=, Ovo Energy, Ikea, the Open University, Grolsch, Nivea and Kopparberg.
