TV channel GB News launched in June 2021, with a wide variety of presenters, but it had a rocky start with technical troubles and the early departure of flagship presenter Andrew Neil.
Since then, however, it has boosted staff numbers to almost 200, poached Sunday Express editor Mick Booker to be its new editorial director, revamped much of the programming and launched a DAB radio simulcast.
Although its linear TV ratings are still not rivalling BBC News or Sky News, the channel’s bosses are happy with its online and social growth. And the channel has still had no Ofcom rulings against it.
Here we have a run-down of all the GB News presenters, as of 11 August 2022.
Why did Andrew Neil leave GB News?
Andrew Neil, an evening presenter and chairman of GB News at its launch, stepped down after disagreements about the direction in which the channel was heading.
The initial objective of GB News, as Neil explained, was to not to “slavishly follow the existing news agenda”, giving power and voice to reflect stories “that matter to you and those that have been neglected”.
As a guest on BBC’s Question Time after his departure, Neil said: “More and more differences emerged between myself and the other senior managers and the board of GB News.
“The differences were such that the direction they were going in was not the direction that I had outlined, it was not the direction I had envisaged for the channel.”
Since Neil left, Nigel Farage has become the flagship evening presenter.
Why did Simon McCoy leave GB News?
A newsreader and journalist who previously worked at Sky News and BBC News, Simon McCoy was a senior figure in the initial GB News presenting roster.
After joining GB News, he hosted the breakfast show, then called The Great British Breakfast, alongside Kirsty Gallacher.
McCoy decided to leave GB News in December for “personal reasons”. He has not since elaborated on his statement, but the channel’s chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos praised the former presenter as an “outstanding broadcaster”, adding that he would remain open to ways to work with McCoy again in the future.
Who are the GB News presenters?
The GB News schedule starts at 6am and ends at midnight daily. The channel uses personality-led formats, making the views of its hosts a major part of its output.
These are the regular presenters on the channel as of August 2022, ranked by broadcast hours.
Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes is a Northern Irish broadcaster and journalist. He currently hosts Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel on GB News alongside Isabel Webster.
After studying journalism at the Dublin College of Business Studies, he joined Ulster Television in 1979 as a host and reported for the station's Farming Ulster programme.
Holmes held a number of roles at Ulster Television, winning a Hometown Radio Award in the process.
In 1986, he joined the BBC, later working for Sky News from 2005 and ITV from 2014. In 2021, Holmes joined GB News, though he has taken an absence in 2022 due to health concerns.
Isabel Webster
Isabel Webster worked at Sky News until 2021, when she joined GB News to co-host its weekly news review show. She now presents Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel alongside Eamonn Holmes.
Webster grew up in Surrey, studying Politics and Theology at the University of Bristol before earning a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism from City, University of London.
Webster's career spans both radio and TV and she previously worked for BBC News before joining Sky News in 2011. In early 2014, she replaced Charlotte Hawkins on its Sunrise breakfast show.
Alastair Stewart
Alastair Stewart OBE is an English journalist and newscaster. He has won the Royal Television Society’s News Presenter of the Year award twice.
Despite aspirations to become a politician or a lawyer, he was offered a job by Southern ITV in 1976 and never left the media industry.
He had anchored ITV News, but stepped down in January 2020 because of a 'misjudgement' in his use of social media.
Stewart then joined GB News in 2021. He now hosts a weekend news and current affairs programme called Alastair Stewart & Friends, which airs on weekends from 12pm to 2 pm.
Nigel Farage
The former leader of the Brexit Party and UKIP's career in broadcasting started by contributing to the US TV network Fox News.
From 2017 to 2020, Farage hosted The Nigel Farage Show on LBC Radio, where he interviewed then-US President Donald Trump who he has since had on GB News.
After leaving LBC, Nigel Farage joined GB News initially to host a programme called The Political Correction, which airs on Sunday mornings. Now he has a Monday to Thursday evening show, simply called Farage, which is one of the biggest on the channel.
Colin Brazier
Colin Brazier's show Brazier broadcasts from 4pm to 6pm each weeknight.
Born in Bradford, Brazier started his journalism career at a newspaper in County Durham before moving to the Yorkshire Post.
He worked at Sky News for 24 years, where he was awarded an International Emmy and a BAFTA. He also won a Gold Medal at a New York Film Festival for his reporting in Afghanistan, and a Monte Carlo TV Festival award for his work in Iraq.
His CV also includes writing regularly for the Catholic Herald, Spectator and Daily Mail, as well as writing the successful book Arguing the Merits of a Larger Family, published in 2013.
Brazier initally hosted a morning show on GB News before becoming the replacement for Neil's evening show when the presenter abruptly left the station in June 2021, then another change to the late afternoon in a later shuffle of the schedule.
Arlene Foster
Arlene Foster is a Northern Irish broadcaster and the former First Minister of Northern Ireland. She made her first media appearance on TV when she was only 16, after her school bus was bombed by the provisional IRA.
Since leaving politics in 2021 she has embarked on a media career, including as a presenter on GB News. She has her own show, The Briefing with Arlene Foster, as well as contributing to the Sunday political magazine show The Political Correction.
Dan Wootton
Dan Wootton is a journalist and broadcaster from New Zealand, now based in the UK.
He was an executive editor of The Sun newspaper in charge of the Bizarre showbiz column, during which time he had to deal with Johnny Depp suing the paper for libel which the publisher won in 2020.
In 2021, Wootton left The Sun and became a columnist for MailOnline, as well as hosting Dan Wootton Tonight four days a week on GB News.
Philip Davies and Ester McVey
Philip Davies is a British Conservative Party politician and MP for Shipley, West Yorkshire.
Davies is known for comments against political correctness and has spoken openly about men's issues in parliament.
He is the husband of Esther McVey, with whom he co-hosts Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip on GB News. The show runs every Saturday morning from 10am until noon.
McVey is also a Conservative MP, having having served Wirral West from 2010-2015 and Tatton since 2017. In that time she also held ministerial posts for Housing and Planning, Work and Pensions and Employment.
McVey was educated at the private Belvedere School, before reading law at Queen Mary University of London. She holds Master's degrees in radio journalism from City, University of London and Science in Corporate Governance from Liverpool John Moores University.
She was a co-presenter of the BBC Children's show But First This in 1991, as well as BBC1's science entertainment series How Do They Do That?
She later set up her own business providing training for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and office space for new startups. This motivated her to found Winning Women, which she sold before starting her political career.
Nana Akua
Nana Akua is one of the weekend hosts of GB News with a self-titled show focusing on debates and news stories.
Akua's career in radio started at Kiss 100 despite originally wanting to be a trader to follow in her father's footsteps.
After Kiss 100, she went on to work at Capital Radio, where she set up Capital Interactive. She then pursued her dream of being a presenter and after negotiating a position as a trainee DJ at The Capital Radio Cafe, she moved on to having her own Drivetime Show on Fusion 107.3.
After working for Sky Vegas, she had various jobs at the BBC, presenting national, regional and local radio. She now is a host of her own show Nana Akua on GB News on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 4pm to 6 pm.
Dehenna Davison
Conservative MP Dehenna Davison hosts a Sunday morning show The Political Correction from 10am until noon.
Studying British Politics and Legislative Studies at the University of Hull, Davison spent some time as a parliamentary aid for North East Summerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg. She has served as the Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland since 2019, following previous running attempts in Kingston Upon Hull North in 2015 and Sedgefield in 2017 – aged 21 and 23 respectively.
She is also a member of the European Research Group, on the board of the Blue Collar Conservatives, and a member of the parliamentary council of the centre-right think tank The Northern Policy Foundation.
Gloria De Piero
Gloria De Piero hosts The Briefing With Gloria De Piero on GB News, running on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12pm to 1 pm. She moved to the fledgling channel from presenting duties on Talkradio and Times Radio.
De Piero grew up in Bradford and was the first in her family to go to university. She has said: "I became active in politics as a teenager because I wanted to change things for people from backgrounds like mine."
After a stint working for the BBC and as political editor for GMTV, she was elected as Labour MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire in 2010. In 2019, she decided not to stand for election again and instead returned to broadcasting.
Michelle Dewberry
Michelle Dewberry has her own GB News show, Dewbs & Co, which runs Monday to Friday from 6pm to 7 pm.
Dewberry had a difficult childhood that meant she left school at 16 but then took a YTS Apprenticeship with St John Ambulance, which she has said put her on the right path, initially to a career in computing.
She has said that the biggest push and motivation in her life is her sister, whom she lost when she was young.
She entered BBC's The Apprentice in 2006 and won before becoming more engaged in politics in 2010. She ran for election in Hull as an independent in 2017, and again for the Brexit Party in 2019.
Anne Diamond
Anne Diamond joined the GB News team in 2022 to host Breakfast with Stephen and Anne, the weekend breakfast show with Stephen Dixon. She is also a regular newspaper reviewer for Sky News.
Diamond began her television career with BBC West in Bristol, before moving to ATV Today as a reporter and newsreader in 1979, later rejoining the BBC to become a reporter on the nightly programme Nationwide.
During the 1990s, she presented the breakfast show on LBC, alongside Sir Nicholas Lloyd and Tommy Boyd, but left in 1999.
In 2016, Diamond joined ITV's Loose Women with Denise Welch, but left in 2018 when she appeared in Channel 5's Costa Del Celebrity.
Stephen Dixon
Stephen Dixon joined GB News at the end of 2021, and now co-hosts Breakfast with Stephen and Anne on weekends from 6am to 10 am.
Dixon has worked for 5 News, Big Breakfast News and eventually Sky News, where he stayed for more than 20 years.
Mark Dolan
Mark Dolan joined GB News in 2021, hosting Mark Dolan Tonight on the channel on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9pm to 11 pm.
Born in Camden, Mark Dolan comes from an Irish family. He grew up in the Sir Robert Peet public house, and then went on to attend University College School and the University of Edinburgh, where he achieved a Master's in politics.
With a career in stand-up comedy, Mark Dolan has hosted various successful radio shows throughout the years, with many recognising him as the host of Channel 4's Balls Of Steel from 2005 to 2008.
He also has experience with radio, having worked for stations like Viva Radio and Talkradio.
Andrew Doyle
Andrew Doyle is a playwright, journalist and political satirist from Northern Ireland. He joined GB News in 2021, hosting Free Speech Nation every Sunday from 7pm to 9 pm.
Doyle completed his undergraduate degree at Aberystwyth before completing a Master's at the University of York. He also holds a doctorate in early Renaissance poetry from the University of Oxford.
He started his career as a stand-up comedian, still running a comedy night in London called Comedy Unleashed. He has appeared on Sky News as a commentator, and as a panel-member on BBC Radio 4's show The Moral Maze.
Liam Halligan
Liam Halligan is an author, British economist, broadcaster and journalist. He works currently as an economics and business editor at GB News, where he also co-hosts a daily show with Gloria De Piero.
Halligan was born in North West London, into an Irish family. He then proceeded to graduate in economics at Warwick and receive an MPhil in Economics from Oxford. He was the first person in his family to go to university.
He previously led the economics and business coverage at Channel 4 News and has written and presented multiple Dispatches documentaries for the broadcaster. He has also worked for CNN, BBC and LBC, Telegraph and the Financial Times.
Tom Harwood
Tom Harwood grew up in Cambridge and graduated from Durham University before moving to London in 2018 to start his journalism career.
He is the political correspondent for GB News, hosting The Briefing With Tom Harwood daily from 9.30am to 10 am. He has also worked for the political news website Guido Fawkes and written for The Daily Telegraph.
Before entering journalism, Harwood was involved in the student wing of Vote Leave.
Mercy Muroki
Mercy Muroki co-hosts To The Point on GB News alongside Patrick Christys, as well as working as a columnist for The Sun.
Muroki was a previously member of the UK Government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities before starting at GB News in 2021.
Patrick Christys
Patrick Christys is originally from Cheshire. He entered the journalism world as a local reporter in Cumbria at the Westmorland Gazette.
When he moved to London, he started as an overnight editor at DailyStar.co.uk and Express.co.uk at the time of Brexit. He also got first-hand experience by reporting in Iraq and Syria, as well as producing a documentary covering the migrant route through Morocco and Spain.
With a past in investigative journalism, he switched to radio. He won the Radio Academy's 30 under 30 Award, while working with Kelvin MacKenzie.
He joined GB News in 2021, and co-hosts the show To The Point with Mercy Muroki every weekday from 10am to 12 pm.
Alexandra Phillips
Alexandra Phillips hosts the GB News discussion show We Need To Talk About... on weekdays from 2pm to 3 pm.
The presenter was born in Gloucester and graduated in Literature and Philosophy at the University of Durham. She trained in newsrooms in Ghana, China and India before studying at the School of Journalism in Cardiff.
After finishing her studies, Phillips started working for ITV Wales and, later, for ITV Tyne Tees. She then joined the BBC.
Philips started her political career in 2009, and years later she was elected as a Brexit Party MEP.
Mark Steyn
Canadian author and radio and television presenter Mark Steyn began his GB News career covering for Nigel Farage on his prime-time show.
Then, in November 2021, Steyn received a permanent prime-time host billing on the channel, covering the Friday slot with his own show Mark Steyn. It now airs Monday to Thursday from 8pm to 9 pm.
Steyn has written several books, including America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It and After America: Get Ready for Armageddon. He has also served as guest host for right-wing US presenters Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson.
Neil Oliver
Neil Oliver is a British television presenter, archaeologist, historian and author. He hosts the current affairs show Neil Oliver Live on GB News, which airs on Saturday nights from 7pm to 9 pm.
He was born in Renfrew and graduated from the University of Glasgow, then attaining a MA in archaeology. Oliver then worked in the field before training as a journalist.
Oliver directed documentaries and first appeared on television in the 2002 BBC Two series Two Men in a Trench. He stayed with the BBC until 2018 and in April 2021 was announced as a presenter for GB News.
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