Welsh broadcaster Guto Harri quits GB News following taking the knee row

Welsh broadcaster Guto Harri has quit GB News following a row about taking the knee.

He was suspended by the ‘anti woke’ channel for taking the knee during a discussion about racism towards England’s black footballers.

Last week, GB News apologised after the journalist, and former press chief to Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London, made the gesture, which it said breached its standards.

Harri hit back in a column for The Sunday Times, in which he called the channel an “absurd parody” that is pandering to the far right, adding that he faced a “tsunami of disappointment, resentment and hate” after his on-air gesture had offended the “lynch mob”.

In his resignation letter to GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos, which was obtained by The Independent, Harri explains his reasons for quitting.

‘Discussed’ 

It says: “Before I took the knee on air I discussed it with my producer, director, co-presenters and head of newsroom.

“After I did it, GB News captured the moment and proactively cascaded it on social media.

“Two days later you told me you wanted me to take a break for the summer. You did not say you were briefing papers and issuing a statement that accused me of breaching your editorial standards.

“I asked you to change that on the night – pointing out it was defamatory. You ignored my texts and refused to take my calls.

In a Sunday Times column, he says: “I joined, part-time but with an ongoing commitment because I liked and trusted those in charge and supported the broad vision.

“But the channel is rapidly becoming an absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be. Rather than defending free speech and confronting cancel culture, it has set out to replicate it on the far right.”