Labour Welsh Senedd member blasted for hypocrisy after hailing ban of 'toxic' GB News
Michelle Dewberry fired back at Rathbone for her comments
GB News/Getty
A Labour Welsh Senedd member has been called out for being a hypocrite after she celebrated the ban of GB News from Welsh Parliament, calling the channel “toxic”.
Jenny Rathbone, a Welsh Labour politician, heralded the banning of the broadcaster on social media: “Pleased to report that the toxic GB News is no longer broadcast on @SeneddWales internal channels.”
She continued: “No place in democratic discourse for Laurence Fox’s unbridled misogyny or echo chambers of misinformation with no fact-checking. Good journalism is essential in challenging times.”
However, Michelle Dewberry of GB News slammed the politician for her hypocrisy in a response to Rathbone’s original post.
WATCH NOW: Welsh Parliament ban GB News from internal TVs
Dewberry said: “Imagine calling others ‘toxic’ when you yourself have been suspended from your party, ‘formally sanctioned’ & asked to attend anti-Semitism training.”
In November 2018, Rathbone was suspended from the Labour assembly group for six weeks after she suggested that security fears of Jewish people at a Cardiff synagogue could be “in their own heads”.
She was ordered to undergo antisemitism training after apologising for her remarks.
Dewberry also slammed Rathbone for “demanding and celebrating censorship in 2023”.
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Others online weighed in on the row.
One user said: “Imagine the levels of toxicity you have to reach to be suspended for antisemitism during Corbyn’s reign!?!”
Another commented: “I don't quite think you get the whole democracy thing.
“Shutting down/cancelling people you disagree with or don't like kind of flies in the face of democracy...”
GB News presenter Nigel Farage slammed the decision as a “totalitarian move”.
“This shows just how awful the Welsh Labour administration is. They are totalitarian in their thinking and behaviour,” he said on air last night.
A spokesperson for the Welsh Speaker said they had decided to ban GB News because the channel was “contrary to our parliament’s values.”
GB News will no longer be shown on the Senedd's internal TVs
PA
They advised staff and members who want to watch the channel to “do so online”.
Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies, described the decision to ban the channel from the Senedd's internal TVs as a “disgrace”, warning that it should “worry us all”.
The Senedd released a statement to say that they have decided to ban GB News following a recent broadcast which was “deliberately offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our parliament’s values”.
The Senedd's statement is understood to be referring to an incident on the channel last month, in which former GB News presenter Laurence Fox made a series of remarks about political journalist Ava Evans on Tuesday evening which GB News has described as “totally unacceptable”.
GB News apologised to Evans and Fox has since departed the channel after an internal investigation.