Lee Anderson has brutally slapped down the Liberal Democrats after they announced they are writing to Ofcom in an attempt to shut down GB News presenters criticising Sir Ed Davey’s failure to grasp the Post Office scandal.
In a letter to the TV regulator this morning, deputy leader Daisy Cooper blasted the channel’s attacks on Sir Ed, singling out Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson for “bias” and “misleading” viewers over the scandal.
GB News has been hot on the tails of Sir Ed, after his refusal to back postmasters over the Post Office while serving as postal minister from 2010-12 sparked outrage among the public.
The Lib Dem leader is now facing multiple calls to both resign as leader of his party and hand his knighthood back.
Ms Cooper’s letter says: “British democracy deserves better than bias, misleading and at times, frankly absurd news reporting of important matters.”
She claimed to have been “shocked” by Tory MPs on the channel, such as Sir Jacob, “taking aim at political leaders from other parties about the scandal, whilst not mentioning his own party’s role in this devastating miscarriage of justice”.
She argued that, by law, the scandal must “be presented impartially and cover the whole picture. For those watching GB News evening shows with Conservative and Reform politicians, this is clearly not the case”.
In her full letter to Ofcom, she accused GB News of committing multiple breaches of the broadcasting code demanding accuracy and due impartiality.
Ms Cooper accused Nigel Farage of launching into “a fictitious monologue about Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, with a number of factual inaccuracies. The Liberal Democrats were offered no right of reply”.
She also attacked Sir Jacob for failing to mention Paula Vennells receiving a CBE in 2019, “Nor did he mention that the governments of which he was a part dragged their feet over financial redress for the victims”.
She said: “Conservative MPs hired by GB News have been entirely silent on these matters, resulting in a wholly one-sided and partisan portrayal of a major political controversy.”
Lee Anderson also came under fire, having not yet broadcast his weekly Friday show.
She preemptively criticised the Tory vice chair over his “posting on social media about other political parties’ role in the Horizon scandal”.
The top Lib Dem MP also accused Mr Anderson of having used PMQs yesterday to ask “what appeared to be a planted question”.
She said: “We have no confidence whatsoever that his programme will cover this topic in an impartial manner.”
However Mr Anderson has already hit back, telling the Express that the Lib Dems’ “time would be better spent apologising to the victims of the Horizon scandal rather than starting a witch hunt against MPs who have quite rightly called her leader out”.
He said: “She seems to forget that Sir Ed has called for the resignation of 34 prominent people in the past. Now its him under the spotlight the Lib Dems have changed their tune.”
The Lib Dem MP concluded: “Farage, Rees-Mogg and Anderson cannot be trusted to report on this issue fairly and accurately, as your Code requires. We urgently need an investigation into whether GB News is breaching your impartiality and accuracy rules.”
The Express has approached Mr Farage and Sir Jacob for comment.
