The veteran broadcaster Eamonn Holmes is reportedly leaving ITV’s flagship daytime programme This Morning after 15 years to join the struggling rightwing network GB News.
Holmes’s decision to join the likes of Nigel Farage and the former News of the World showbiz editor Dan Wootton at GB News comes after he was the subject of a watchdog inquiry when – during the first wave of the Covid pandemic – he suggested conspiracy theories linking coronavirus to 5G phone masts should not be dismissed, in an outburst that railed against the “mainstream media”.
The regulator Ofcom issued guidance to ITV over the comments and Holmes provided a clarification the following day, distancing himself from the conspiracy theories.
But a few months later, he and his wife, Ruth Langsford, were dropped from their Friday slot and replaced by Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond.
According to the Mirror, Holmes will front his own show several times a week at GB News. An unnamed source told the newspaper: “Eamonn’s move to GB News marks the end of an era. He’ll be missed by many ITV viewers but, the truth is, this job offer probably came at just the right moment for both him and ITV. All good things come to an end.”
ITV and GB News have been approached for comment.
Born in Belfast, Holmes started his broadcasting career in 1979 at Ulster Television, the ITV franchise in Northern Ireland. He has since worked for ITV’s GMTV and for Sky News, and has presented sports coverage and quizshows.
GB News launched in June with its then chairman, Andrew Neil, claiming it would not “slavishly follow the existing news agenda”, would cover “the stories that matter to you and those that have been neglected” and deliver “a huge range of voices that reflect the views and values of our United Kingdom”.
Neil was the face of GB News before it went on air, but left after presenting just eight programmes in three months, because of technical hitches, the loss of senior staff and differences of opinion over its political direction.
Neil left the chairman’s seat as well as his presenting duties at GB News, which is run by the former Sky News Australia chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos, claiming it “would have killed me” to carry on.
From July, Farage, the former Brexit party and Ukip MEP, will host his eponymous evening show on Monday to Thursday and has replaced Neil as the face of the channel.
