Director of programming for GB News John McAndrew has reportedly quit his role hours after host Guto Harri was suspended for taking the knee live on air.
Harri's gesture was intended to show solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement and racism in the UK following the Euro 2020 final.
But on Thursday, GB News tweeted that it was an ‘unacceptable breach of our standards'.
It's now being reported that director of programming John McAndrew has quit his job following the Harri's suspension.
The Guardian claim he decided to quit after coming under pressure to favour ‘culture war’ topics.
He was said to have been asked to "dial down" the focus on local reporting.
GB News' tweet on Thursday read: "GB News stands four square against racism in all its forms. We do not have a company line on taking the knee," they wrote.
"Some of our guests have been in favour, some against. All are anti-racist. We have editorial standards that all GB News journalists uphold."
The post continued: "On Tuesday a contributing presenter took the knee live on air and this was an unacceptable breach of our standards."
Harri and his GB News co-host Mercy Muroki spoke about the racist abuse during Tuesday's show, and Harri admitted he “gets it” why players took the knee before each game, and then decided to do it himself live on air.
"I’ll tell you where I am,” Harri said to Muroki on Tuesday morning. “I’ve never understood why people would find it offensive."
He continued: "I can see and I tended to be one of those people that thought do we really have to do this at every football match, can’t we just enjoy whatever sport we’re in too?
"But having seen over the past few days just how close to the surface, just how deep-rooted, just how hideously ugly racism among some England fans is, I totally get why this squad throughout thought we have to say, day in, day out, that racism is not on.
"And I actually with the benefit of hindsight, I may have underestimated how close to the surface the racism still is, I actually get it," Harri added.
