GB News has had a good summer. Buoyed by a summer of small boat crossings and immigration protests and arrests for free speech, the People’s Channel has been nosing ahead of rivals BBC, ITV and Sky News. In August, its average views between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m. rose to 85,000, with the BBC News Channel falling to 69,000 and Sky News falling to 67,000. For a second month in a row, its daily viewers were ahead of both rivals.

GB News also boasts big political names, with Nigel Farage and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg both presenting prime-time shows, as well young talent breaking through such as investigative reporter Charlie Peters and winsome late-night presenter Patrick Christys. It covers stories where legacy broadcasters have often feared to tread – legal and illegal migration, wokery, threats to free speech – and is often forthrightly critical of a Labour government that many see as failing on all three.

It always seemed a matter of when, not if, the government would move to clip the broadcaster’s wings. This week, such agenda was let slip by culture secretary Lisa Nandy. Nandy wants GB News reined in, it seems, with her sympathies lying firmly with the ‘independent’ BBC over the ‘People’s Channel’.

Speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport committee on Wednesday, Nandy railed against what she called ‘Nigel Farage presenting news programmes on GB News’, which she says parliamentarians have raised concerns with her about. This was a revealing comment, not least because it is entirely untrue.

In fact, Neither Farage, nor any other politician, has ever presented a ‘news programme’ on GB News – doing so is against existing Ofcom rules. Politicians........

© The Spectator