Eamonn Holmes is to join GB News on January 3rd, 2022, after 15 years with the ITV daytime show This Morning, which he presented with his wife, Ruth Langsford.
The broadcaster, who apologised last year after suggesting that it may "suit the state narrative" to dismiss false claims linking 5G telecoms and coronavirus, and that a connection was worth investigating, also spent 12 years presenting the ITV breakfast show GMTV and 11 years at Sky News Sunrise, the morning show he presented with Isabel Webster. He is teaming up with Webster to present the GB News breakfast show.
The Irishman said: “I’ve been involved with broadcasting firsts for my whole career. I love them, I’m excited by them and I’m in my element when I’m doing them. I’ve admired GB News from the start, for all the ways it is doing television news differently and breaking the mould. The industry needs a shake-up and I couldn’t wait to get on board.
“I was at the inception of daytime programming in Britain, when the BBC launched the first-ever dedicated daytime service in 1986, and I was there on day one of GMTV, which we built from scratch and became the market leader. Every time, people said it would fail, or there was no audience for it. Every time, we proved them wrong. GB News will be no different.”
Holmes is taking over from the veteran newsreader Simon McCoy, the latest senior figure to quit the right-wing channel. McCoy, one of the station's highest-profile recruits when it launched earlier this year, is poised to leave in January for "personal reasons". In September the broadcaster Andrew Neil resigned as the network's lead presenter and chairman.
Holmes and Webster will also become the faces of GB News Radio, a new DAB station being launched at the end of January. – Guardian
