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TELL OFCOM: GB News is ignoring impartiality rules about Net Zero

Watch: GB News hosts make a series of unfounded claims about Net Zero when interviewing the leader of the Climate Party.

Read our complaint on GB News

On 25 July 2024, GB News hosts Ben Leo and Miriam Cates (former Conservative MP) made partisan and unsupported claims about the supposedly damaging effects of Net Zero policies.

Their claims violated Ofcom rules 5.1, 5.5 and 5.7, which require accuracy and avoiding misrepresenting facts. Submit your complaint to Ofcom using this form and by following the guidance below. 

Programme details:

Programme title: Britain’s Newsroom
Date of broadcast: 25 July 2024
Time of broadcast (24 hour clock): 11:16
Channel / station*: GB News

Your complaint:

Subject: GB News hosts Ben Leo and Miriam Cates made unproven allegations that what they partisanly call a “deranged march” to Net Zero will make us “colder” and “poorer”. Their claims violated Ofcom rules 5.1, 5.5 and 5.7 relating to accuracy and impartiality.

Description:

Here’s a few bullet points to include:

  • On 25th July 2024, GB News hosts Ben Leo and Miriam Cates, in a conversation with the leader of the Climate Party Ed Gemmell, made a series of unfounded and unbalanced claims about Net Zero.
  • Leo alleged that the “march to Net Zero” will “completely tear up a lot of people’s lives, costing jobs, costing money” and “arguably it’s going to cause us so much harm”. Miriam Cates, also a GB News host and former Conservative MP, claimed that “the pursuit of Net Zero by 2030 absolutely will make us poor” due to it being “expensive”, “undeliverable” and “just not possible”. Finally Leo claimed that “lots of people” see it as a “deranged march to Net Zero” and claimed that it will make us “colder” and “poorer”.
  • Leo and Cates’ claims against Net Zero, which are in line with Leo’s regular climate scepticism and denigration of climate scientists on GB News, violated their requirements of impartiality (rule 5.1), including on public policy (rule 5.5). The lack of substantiation on their claims, which were often presented as fact as opposed to opinion, is a violation of rules 5.1 and 5.7, which require “due accuracy” and the correct representation of facts.
Deadline for complaints: August 22, 2024 11:59 pm

Submitting a complaint to Ofcom should take you less than 10 minutes and is completed via a form on their website.

Go straight to OFCOM
Read our guide

Submitting a complaint to Ofcom should take you less than 10 minutes and is completed via a form on their website.

  • Ofcom is the UK’s public regulator for communications services. Among other responsibilities, their job is to ensure that TV channels uphold the Broadcasting Code. This code requires broadcasters to protect the public from harmful and offensive material, avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals and organisations, and report the news with due accuracy and impartiality.
  • Ofcom has real power to yield. Sanctions they can issue include directions not to repeat content, fines — and crucially, the power to suspend or revoke a TV channel’s licence to broadcast.
  • Ofcom must carefully consider every single complaint to see if their rules have been broken. If the complaint is strong, Ofcom will launch a formal investigation process.
  • Ofcom will not reply to each specific complaint but instead publishes records of the complaints received, investigations underway and breaches on their website, every fortnight.
  • Complaints must be about a specific breach of the code and submitted within 20 days of the program going to air.