TL;DR: Right-wing outlet GB News is facing another investigation by the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom, following complaints from 15,000 people after it broadcast two pundits baselessly linking LGBTQIA+ people with bestiality and paedophilia.
Ofcom, the UK's broadcast regulator, will investigate two GB News shows after thousands complained about guests' anti-LGBTQIA+ slurs and rhetoric.
The broadcasts at the centre of the investigations saw pundits make baseless, harmful and widely debunked claims that LGBTQIA+ people were "more prone" to "sexual deviancy".
On The Saturday Five's 20th June 2026 broadcast, right-wing influencer Based and Bougie said, without evidence, that gay men were more likely to sexually assault their adopted children.
Meanwhile, on Alex Armstrong's Tonight show on 5th July 2026, Caroline Farrow of the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQIA+ group Citizen Go said that Pride was no longer about gay rights and had become a celebration of bestiality and paedophiles - Good Law Project
Armstrong did challenge the comments, but only partially, saying "the overwhelming amount of people at Pride were there for good reasons... I don’t think it was full of paedophiles and everything, I’m sure there are nefarious people.” - The Guardian
Last year, GB News were found to have breached the broadcasting code for comments by GB News host Josh Howie, who said "paedos" were part of the group “LGBTQ persons”. However, the regulator did not impose any sanctions for the comments. At the time, it said this was because the broadcaster had already broadcast an apology - QueerAF
Good Law Project's defamation lawyer, Matthew Gill, remarked at the time that GB News had defended its “disgraceful claim about the LGBTQ+ community as ‘free speech’ until the bitter end” and called for the regulator to hold the channel's "hate-filled broadcasts to account" and impose sanctions.
Speaking after Ofcom announced the latest round of investigations, he added, "When GB News tried to make a link between LGBTQ+ people and paedophilia before, Ofcom found the broadcast was highly offensive and yet did nothing about it. The regulator must impose meaningful sanctions to stop this rogue channel repeating these vicious lies again and again."
The campaign group, which has spearheaded a number of campaigns against the broadcaster, say that 12,000 people complained using its tool, while a further 3000 were catalogued in its broadcast bulletin. Significant work by journalist Liam Rondi and support of the campaigns by household names like Bimini helped contribute to such a high number of complaints - The National Scot
The CEO of gender-critical group the LGB Alliance has criticised the investigation, saying “GB News has consistently championed the rights of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals. They are right to call out the homophobia of the straight TQ+ movement." The broadcaster itself has said the investigations have only come about after an "orchestrated campaign" - Attitude
The broadcaster is also being investigated for repeating a broadcast of an interview with Donald Trump where his comments about climate change, Islam and immigration had gone unchallenged - The Guardian
Broadcasters in the UK have a duty to provide due impartiality, which is widely understood as challenging false, controversial, or unbalanced views by contributors and pundits. It does not go as far as requiring a balanced amount of airtime for opposing views.
Analysis: Hate speech is not free speech
The ‘Paradox of Tolerance’ is a political concept which holds that a society must defend its progressive and tolerant nature by refusing to tolerate bigoted ideas before they become the new norm - QueerAF
It's a concept that fundamentally undermines free speech absolutists and broadcasters like GB News, who hide behind free speech arguments to pursue hate speech. The claims of the right-wing pundits on GB News in both of these instances do not belong on British TV, and guests who spout these hateful views that peddle lies and misinformation should never be invited onto the airwaves.
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