Controversial newspaper columnist and former The Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins is to present her own show on national talk radio station LBC.
When Hopkins appeared as a guest presenter on the station a year ago she found herself under fire from listeners over a Sun column in which she compared migrants to “cockroaches”.
One caller told Hopkins she was “selling a completely false rhetoric to the nation” which was “disappointing and dangerous, really upsetting”.
When the caller said the solution was to go back to the governments of the countries migrants were coming from, Hopkins replied: “I’m going to shut you down there because to be honest it’s boring the life out of me.”
Hopkins’s TV show was axed by Discovery-owned TLC channel last year. Her series, If Katie Hopkins Ruled The World, attracted just 69,000 viewers for its first episode.
She will present a Sunday morning programme on LBC, which broadcasts on FM in London and on digital nationwide, with the broadcaster promising she would bring “straight talking and honest commentary to the weekend schedule”.
Hopkins’s LBC show from 10am to midday on Sunday is part of a new weekend schedule on the Global Radio-owned station which also sees former tennis player and breakfast TV presenter Andrew Castle present the weekend breakfast show on Saturday and Sunday.
Press regulator Ipso last year rejected more than 400 complaints about Hopkins’ Sun column about migration, on the grounds that the piece did not refer to a specific individual.
In other changes, LBC presenters Andrew Pierce moves to Friday evenings, Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell moves from Sunday breakfast to Sunday afternoons and Beverley Turner takes the Saturday evening slot.
Petrie Hosken and Olly Mann are both leaving the station.
James Rea, managing editor of LBC, said: “LBC leads the way in opinionated, intelligent radio in Britain. With their incisive opinions and wealth of life experience, I’m excited to welcome Katie Hopkins and Andrew Castle to the LBC team.”
