Caroline Nokes says GB News should be ‘taken off air’
Caroline Nokes, the Tory MP who demanded GB News was taken off air, is at the heart of a new row after it was revealed she earned £6,300 from the channel’s rival, Talk TV.
Ms Nokes had already provoked a furious row within the Conservative Party after her attack on GB News in a panel on BBC Newsnight earlier this week.
She appeared to take a swipe at colleagues including Lee Anderson, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey, Philip Davies and Dehenna Davison who present or have presented shows for GB News.
But according to her register of interests, the former immigration minister has earned thousands of pounds from rival start-up channel Talk TV.
Ms Nokes has put down six payments for appearances on channel’s programme First Edition ranging from £600 to £1,800.
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READ MORE: Tory civil war erupts over GB News with fury at MP who wants it taken off air
The largest payment was for £1,800 for six hours on Talk TV’s First Edition registered for January 23.
During her interview on Newsnight Ms Nokes also suggested that she had not appeared on any of GB News’s shows when presenters from the channel pointed out she had been on at least nine times.
One Conservative MP said: “It’s all very well for Caroline to have a go at her colleagues for having shows on GB News but it’s a bit hypocritical when she is taking money from a rival.”
But Ms Nokes insisted that the context of her remarks needed to be taken into account.
She told Express.co.uk: “I have never appeared on a show hosted by a fellow MP which was the context of the discussion, I have never hosted a show myself, I have only ever appeared for a slot as a panellist on someone else’s show.”
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Ms Nokes appeared with former Sky News presenter Adam Boulton who now works for Talk TV and Times Radio on the Newsnight programme where both called for GB News to be taken off air.
The comments had already prompted criticism from fellow Tories about closing down a channel, while Shipley MP and GB News host Philip Davies noted that Nokes had never criticised the BBC in the same way over its scandals.
Ms Nokes said on Newsnight: “I don’t go on any of their shows because to be frank, from my perspective, if you’re an MP you have a day job to do getting on with the work that you have in the House of Commons and not swanning off, in some cases several times a week, to present a show on a television channel”.
She claimed that “Ofcom deserves a bit of time and space to do its job” investigating GB News and it “should be taken off air.”
The row has come after GB News suspended Dan Wootton and Laurence Fox after the pair made crude sexual remarks on air about journalist Ava Evans. Fox has since apologised for his remarks.
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