India Willoughby quits GB News, accusing channel of ‘opening gates of hell’ for trans people
Broadcaster said she did not want to take part in what she considered to be ‘demonisation’ of trans people
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.India Willoughby has refused to appear as a commentator on GB News again, after accusing the channel of “demonising trans people at every opportunity”.
During an exchange live on air on Sunday, Ms Willoughby said: “I don’t want to be involved anymore because having watched a week of output from the station it’s quite clear to anyone that you’re anti-trans.”
She had previously agreed to appear weekly on the news channel as a panel commentator on Tonight Live with Dan Wootton.
GB News launched earlier this month and is the first news channel in the UK to generally be considered to have an explicit political orientation.
Ms Willoughby told PinkNews that this was something that had initially appealed to her, as she described herself as a “patriotic person” with “right of centre political views.”
“I was really looking forward to doing it,” she said. “I thought it was going to be a breath of fresh air. I like debates.”
She said that in reality, the channel was nothing like her expectations, describing her experience as “an absolute nightmare”.
“For people like me, it’s opened the gates of hell,” she said.
Throughout the month of June, GB News had hosted voices such as Maya Forstater, who recently won an employment tribunal after losing her job over tweets claiming trans women are “not women”, and the LGB Alliance , an organisation that opposes policies on trans issues, which has been accused of being “transphobic” by a number of MPs.
Writing in the Mail+ on Wednesday, Ms Willoughby said: “All I wanted to do was present a passionate defence of trans people (of whom I am one) after a week of unrelenting negative media coverage…”
She said that she felt frustrated that there had been a lack of balance and hoped to correct views that trans people were “dangerous and deluded”.
“After all,” she wrote, “GB News was the station looking for previously silenced voices.”
Ms Willoughby said she decided to quit GB News following her initial on-screen interaction with host Dan Wootton on Sunday.
When Mr Wooton introduced Ms Willoughby as “trans broadcaster India Willoughby,” she replied, “It’s great to be with you, gay presenter Dan Wootton”.
“I didn’t want to be part of what I considered the demonisation of a section of society with no representation,” she wrote.
Sunday night’s episode of Tonight Live with Dan Wootton which features Ms Willoughby is not currently available on GB News’ website.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments