Cardiff-born journalist Guto Harri has been taken off the air at GB News, sources have told the Guardian.
The controversial right-wing news channel recently suffered a drop in viewers, with some shows attracting zero viewers over the last few days.
This was reportedly triggered by a ‘boycott’ of the channel by its primarily right-wing audience, who were unhappy with the display of anti-racism by Harri.
Read more: Live summer holiday traffic updates as mass getaway causes M4, M48 and A55 delays
Now sources have told the Guardian that Harri has been sacked from the channel. There has been much speculation over whether senior on-screen staff have also left in the last few days.
A friend of Harri told the Guardian: “GB News is becoming an absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be – not defending free speech and combatting cancel culture but replicating it on the far right. Nasty.
“It’s ridiculous to say he’s breached editorial standards and almost certainly defamatory. In reality it wasn’t a breach of editorial code but ‘sacked for offending the lynch mob’.”
The station bizarrely apologised for Harri’s anti-racist gesture on Thursday evening from its official Twitter account.
The post said: "GB News stands four square against racism in all its forms. We do not have a company line on taking the knee.
"Some of our guests have been in favour, some against. All are anti-racist. We have editorial standards that all GB News journalists uphold.
"On Tuesday a contributing presenter took the knee live on air and this was an unacceptable breach of our standards."
Harri responded by tweeting from his own account. He said: "GB News is - above all - about free speech; having the debates others won’t.
“English footballers have made it clear that when they take the knee they are making a clear statement about rejecting racism (not endorsing the narrow divisive aims of BLM). I support them."
The station, which airs on Sky, Virgin Media,and Freeview, was set up just last month on the basis that meaningful debate was no longer possible on mainstream news channels, due to ‘cancel culture’.
GB News have not yet commented.
Wales Matters delivers the best of WalesOnline's coverage of politics, health, education, current affairs and local democracy straight to your inbox. To subscribe, click here, enter your email address and follow the simple instructions.
