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TELL OFCOM: These personal attacks from GB News are not acceptable

Watch: GB News host refers to the Labour Party and Just Stop Oil as “posh, smelly eco-freaks”.

Read our complaint against GB News

On 10 August 2024, GB News host Leo Kearse launched an unfair attack on the Labour Party and Just Stop Oil, referring to them both as “posh, smelly, eco-freaks” after claiming that Labour had met Just Stop Oil’s demands regarding stopping new oil exploration in the North Sea.

These comments clearly violate Ofcom rules 5.1 and 5.7 requiring due impartiality as well as rule 7.1 which requires avoiding “unjust and unfair treatment”.

Submit your complaint to Ofcom using this form and by following the guidance below. 

Programme details:

Programme title: Saturday Night Showdown
Date of broadcast: 10 August 2024
Time of broadcast (24 hour clock): 20:42
Channel / station: GB News

Your complaint:

Subject: GB News host Leo Kearse referred to Just Stop Oil and the Labour Party as “posh, smelly, eco freaks”, which is in breach of Ofcom rules 5.1, 5.7 and 7.1.

Description:

Here’s a few bullet points to include:

  • On 10th August 2024, GB News host Leo Kearse, in a conversation about the environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil, referred to them as “posh, smelly, eco freaks”, and then added that the “description also fits the Labour Party”. This came shortly after Kearse said that the “new Labour government has already pledged to meet Just Stop Oil’s demand to stop new drilling” for oil in the North Sea.
  • Kearse’s comments about the the campaigning group and the Labour Party were not challenged and amount to a violation of Ofcom rules 5.1 and 5.7, which require coverage to be presented with “due impartiality”, accuracy and balance. Describing a political party as “posh, smelly, eco freaks” is a clear violation of these principles.
  • Additionally, Ofcom rule 7.1 requires that “broadcasters must avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes”. Kearse’s comments, which disparage both the Labour Party and Just Stop Oil on a personal level rather than focusing on their policies or actions, amount to unfair treatment.
Deadline for complaints: September 6, 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.