New RAJAR figures have dropped for the third quarter of this year. It’s more happy reading for GB News…
GB News Radio, which is just a simulcast of GB News TV, has now managed to overtake Talk Radio with a weekly audience of 611,000. It overtook Times Radio last quarter and has just clinched the spot for fastest growing radio brand..
GB’s audience is up a whopping 54% in the last twelve months – 18% higher than August. Listeners are staying tuned for 30% more hours – in particular to Good Afternoon Britain with Emily Carver and Guido alumnus Tom Harwood, which is up 95%. LBC still rules the non-BBC roost while the weekly reach of the BBC’s regional and local stations is down 14% year-on-year and 6% compared with last quarter. People are voting with their ears…
SW1 tuned into GB News last night for coverage of its Tory leadership event: Decision Time: The Race to Lead. Chris Hope compèred with questions from the audience aimed at the candidates. Badenoch won the room by the end…
Guido has had sight of the BARB figures for the night. At its peak GB News reached 152,600 viewers for its leadership event – remaining well above 100,000 throughout the two hours of coverage. Sky News had 80,600 and the BBC 70,400 concurrently. GB beat its two rivals’ combined figures…
GB has been leading broadcast coverage of the Tory leadership race. Hosting the only quasi-debate that the leadership camps have managed to agree to so far is a win…
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are set to be grilled by Christopher Hope and audience members on GB News’ Decision Time: The Race to Lead. After Hope tossed a coin, Jenrick is first up. It’s the first (and potentially only) televised leadership hustings before voting for Tory members closes on 31st October. Expect some fiery words from Jenrick on immigration and the ECHR. Guido will give you live updates below:
Jenrick has spoken to GB News following his ascension to the final two. He’s a happy man…
“I’m absolutely delighted to have got the trust and the confidence of so many. I have a very specific plan as to how we do that whether it’s improving the NHS, getting growth going again in our economy or securing our borders – I don’t believe in platitudes I want us to have a serious plan now.”
The leadership hopeful claims vote-lending accusations are a “conspiracy theory“:
“I think in the privacy of the ballot box my colleagues have voted for who they think is the best person to take this party forward.”
He is framing the race now as one on immigration policy:
“On immigration we do differ. I believe that we should leave the ECHR. In fact I think it’s the only way in which we’ll control our borders. We’ll get foreign criminals out of this country, we’ll get terror suspects out and we’ll actually restore sovereignty to Parliament. Also we do disagree on whether we should have a capped system of migration.”
Jenrick is still pushing for the member vote to be pushed forward for a Budget reponse from the new leader. Pushback from Badenoch so far…
Some rising stars don’t burn as bright as others. New MP Hamish Falconer, who was immediately promoted to Foreign Office Minister and happens to be the son of New Labour heavyweight Lord Falconer, had his morning round debut this morning. It was one to forget…
On GB News Falconer failed to tackle an onslaught from Isabel Webster who skewered the government for the complete chaos inside Downing Street, giving away the Chagos Islands, and its non-existent mandate to hand inflation-busting pay rises to train drivers while withdrawing free cash from pensioners. Young Hamish had nothing to say part from that it’s all been a “success”…
Falconer has had glowing profiles from the Lobby recently including an eyebrow-raising Tatler deep dive. The Guardian fawned:
“Conscious of his privilege, he says that his advantageous start in life means that he has to ‘go further to demonstrate that I do understand the vast majority of families in Lincoln who are really struggling.'”
He certainly went somewhere this morning. Isabel finished:
“I would suggest that one of the first jobs that Morgan McSweeney does is choose a better candidate for the morning round because that was excruciating and I’ve interviewed a lot of politicians.”
There’s always next time…
There are perils to live reporting from inside a raucus Conference party. GB News’ Deputy Political Editor and Guido alumnus Tom Harwood was briefly consulted for his analysis from the dance floor. That’s one way to get out of an interview…
