One of the UK’s most popular radio stations, LBC, is letting Nigel Farage leave the station before his contract was officially over.
The station which is owned by Global Media, said in a statement that it wished him well, but after discussions with Farage it had been decided that Farage would step down with “immediate effect”.
According to the statement, Farage’s contract, which hadn’t fully run its course but was “up very shortly” with the radio station wouldn’t be renewed and that he was being released from it with “immediate effect”.
Nigel Farage’s contract with LBC is up very shortly and, following discussions with him, Nigel is stepping down from LBC with immediate effect. We thank Nigel for the enormous contribution he has made to LBC and wish him well.
The station has had a history of ending its contract, or not renewing contracts with some of its most controversial hosts. In 2017 the station ended its relationship with Katie Hopkins.
LBC and Jacob Rees-Mogg have inked a deal to see the EU sceptic and anti-gay rights MP host a regular hour-long show on the station.
The MP for North East Somerset, Jacob Rees-Mogg is to join the LBC roster list for a weekly show, on Friday evenings at 6 PM. LBC have signed the Tory MP after the apparent success of his half-hour phone in on Nick Ferrari‘s breakfast show.
Speaking to LBC, the MP, who has voted against every piece of legislation which affects the rights of LGBT+ people in the UK, said,
“To present a weekly show on LBC at such a crucial time for our nation is an unmissable opportunity for me,
“Through the phone-ins with Nick Ferrari and the programmes I have already presented, I have thoroughly enjoyed conversing directly with LBC’s listeners.
“Their honesty, insight and wisdom have challenged and inspired me. While I will be behind the microphone, they will take centre stage.
“With Brexit at the top of the agenda and opinions running high, I look forward to finding out what the public really thinks over the next couple of months and to continuing the national debate on LBC.”
Representation?
Rees-Mogg will be joining a roster of presenters that also includes, Nigel Farage. The station which broadcasts across the UK currently has just one regular female presenter for a daily show, Shelaigh Forgarty and has just one BAME presenter in Maajid Nawaz.
Previously LBC contracted Katie Hopkins to host a show on the station, but she left in 2017. After she left, Owen Jones fronted a Saturday morning slot for a limited period.
James Rea, LBC’s managing editor, said, “With the country in a state of political confusion, Jacob Rees-Mogg joins the LBC line-up during an extraordinary period.
“An outspoken voice on Brexit, he will bring his inside knowledge and vast experience in politics to Friday evenings on LBC, with our 2.1 million weekly listeners across the UK, as always, in the driving seat of the conversation.”
CREDIT: By Miquel Garcia [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia CommonsGuardian columnist Owen Jones is urging advertisers to drop the Global radio station, LBC, after suggesting that the outlet is “normalising” the far-right. His campaign started after former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, who has his own daily show on the station, interviewed former Breitbart co-founder and Donald Trump advisor, Steve Bannon.
Taking to Twitter Jones wrote, “The threat of the far-right is growing. If fascists like Steve Bannon can be interviewed by his friend on national radio and call for right-wing uprisings and we do nothing – then calamity awaits”
“LBC are legitimising and making mainstream right-wing extremism and fascism, at a time when the far-right is on the march and poses a grave threat to this whole country.
“And major companies are absolutely directly complicit in it and they have to be held to account”.
Natwest, McDonald’s, British Gas et al
The left-wing writer reached out to a number of advertisers, including NatWest, McDonald’s, British Gas and TK Maxx who currently advertise on the station.
Jones, using Twitter, wrote,
“…do you want your brand to be associated with right wing extremism? Stop advertising on @Global Radio which gives Nigel Farage his own show”.
Natwest, who is also a sponsor of the British LGBT Awards and Gay Star News‘s Digital Pride, said that it had no plans to change its advertising strategy.
In a statement, Natwest said, “We have no current plans to change our advertising strategy, but we will continue to take steps to ensure our advertising doesn’t appear alongside content which is obscene, illegal, or at odds with our values”.
Jones’ campaign was met with both praise and criticism with some following his example and writing to the advertisers in question asking them to stop sponsoring LBC‘s output. Some, however, criticised the writer for clamping down on free speech.
LBC is a national radio station which encourages listeners to call in and air their views. It has a broad panel of presenters from all sides of the political spectrum. Subjects regularly discussed on the station include, Brexit, Donald Trump as well as gender and identity politics.
The mother of a man who was killed in the Manchester Bombing has spoken about she has been trolled since the death of her son.
Speaking to LBC the mother of Martyn Hett, Figen Murray, has spoken about how she and Martyn’s stepfather, Stuart Murray, have been trolled by online cyber bullies since the death of her son. Ms Murray told LBC’s James O’Brien that they had received messages via social media questioning whether she was actually grieving the loss of her son because she didn’t appear to be more angry in public. She said that despite that she was seen smiling in public, her “heart is bleeding” over the death of her son.
Last week she appeared at a memorial for Martyn and told the crowds that her son was an “iconic diva”. She also thanked everyone for their messages of love and support since his death. She also called the family’s liaison officers “absolute angels”.
She said that she was never going to go down the route of hate or anger for whoever was responsible and the goodness that she’s seen since his death had “by far outweighed the darkness”.
Tim Farron has once again refused to answer on whether he thinks being gay is a sin.
Speaking on Nick Ferrari’s LBC morning show, Tim Farron once again refused to answer whether he thought being gay was a sin.
A caller, Brian, from Highgate asked the Lib Dem leader whether he thought that homosexuality was a sin to which he answered, “I dealt with that weeks ago.”
Ferarri asked Farron to remind the listeners what his position was, to which Farron answered, “Do you know what, we’re not going there. My personal faith is my personal faith.”
When pushed again by Ferrari, Farron answered,
“…to be honest with you, a person who is a leader of a political party, it’s their job as someone who is passionate about LGBT rights, prove it with your actions, not by your words.
“My actions, absolutely, are 100% about defending LGBT rights. And as a party, you look what we’ve done, my colleague Lynne Featherstone introduced equal marriage, I’m very proud of that.”
In April, Farron answered the question in April during an interview with the BBC where he said,
in a BBC interview this week, again Mr Farron’s opinion was sought on the subject. He replied,
“I don’t believe that gay sex is a sin.
“I take the view though, that as a political leader, my job is not to pontificate on theological matters.
“It seems to me that there is a general election on at the moment, we need to be talking about big issues.”
The general election will take place on Thursday 8th June 2017.
Katie Hopkins has not yet spoken about her removal from service and it has not been confirmed that Ms Hopkins has been fired or sacked.
The move to remove Hopkins from the LBC schedule follows on from a boycott call from Guardian writer, Owen Jones, who suggested that guests who contribute to the station should withdraw their services until the station removed Hopkins from its roster of presenters.
Following the suicide bombing in Manchester on Monday, Katie Hopkins sent a series of tweets from her Twitter account, after a number of terror-related incidents were reported after the fatal attack on Manchester Arena. In one tweet she questioned whether it was “Ramadan” and called upon “Western men” to “stand up, demand action” and not to carry on as normal.
Taking to Twitter Mr Jones said, “we stood against hatred, and, this time, we won”.
He added that no one should try and say that the departure of Ms Hopkins should be seen as an “attack on free speech” as Ms Hopkins could “keep freely spouting her hatred, and tragically will”,
Katie Hopkins and the radio station LBC have parted company.
LBC and Katie Hopkins part ways. The departure was announced by LBC via Twitter
“Effective Immediately” reads a Tweet from LBC’s official account as the station announces that controversial host, Katie Hopkins will no longer work for the station.
LBC and Katie Hopkins have agreed that Katie will leave LBC effective immediately.
The move follows on from a boycott call from Guardian writer, Owen Jones, who suggested that guests who contribute to the station should withdraw their services until the station removed Hopkins from its roster of presenters.
Following the suicide bombing in Manchester on Monday, Katie Hopkins sent a series of tweets from her Twitter account, after a number of terror-related incidents were reported after the fatal attack on Manchester Arena. In one tweet she questioned whether it was “Ramadan” yet and called upon “Western men” to “stand up, demand action” and not to carry on as normal.
She went on to say that she accepted the criticism levelled against her and called her critics “eunuchs”. She tweeted,
“This is your response to slaughter 1) attack hopkins 2) say you stand united 3) celebrate diversity”
Taking to Twitter Mr Jones said, “we stood against hatred, and, this time, we won”.
He added that no one should try and say that the departure of Ms Hopkins should be seen as an “attack on free speech” as Ms Hopkins could “can keep freely spouting her hatred, and tragically will”,
Ms Hopkins has not responded and THEGAYUK reached out to her for comment.
A child carer caller on Katie Hopkins LBC radio show claimed she was told by the school that she works with not to tell parents that she is gay.
A caller rang into Katie Hopkins‘ morning talk show on LBC to say that she was advised not to tell parents that she was a lesbian. Sally, who says that she was “head of care” at a residential school in the UK, was told not to disclose her sexuality by the head of the school – in case people thought she was a paedophile.
Speaking to Katie, Sally said,
“I was once asked by the head not to let any of the parents know that I was a lesbian, because they wanted for parents to believe that they were safe. There are a lot of people out there who still believe that being homosexual is akinned to being a pedophile.
“I think that view prevails throughout society”.
Sally called in after Katie asked her listeners whether the “traditional family unit” was best, after the Church of England’s Synod rejected a call for continued opposition to same-sex marriage.
In a late night rant about the prescription of PrEP the LBC presenter, Ian Collins, told listeners of his show not to have sex if their partner was HIV positive.
The Court of Appeal told NHS England that it is responsible for prescribing PrEP – a move which could cost £20 million.
PrEP is described as a ‘game-changing’ pill that, when used alongside condoms, testing and treatment, could help bring the beginning of the end for HIV.
Speaking on his LBC show Ian Collins said that the decision to fund a preventative drug for people who haven’t got HIV as a “scandal”.
“Critics have said at £400 per person per month, the drug treatment is too expensive and those in that high risk group should be encouraged to practice safer sex. Well just don’t have sex at all.
“We are funding a drug for people who haven’t got HIV, but as a way of protecting them so that they might not get it so they can still have sex with their partner and not worry about protection.”
He then went on to suggest that if your partner has HIV not to have sex at all.
“Love your partner, hug your partner, kiss your partner, do all manner of other things you can do with your partner, just don’t have sex. If your partner HIV positive, don’t have sex. There’s lots of people that don’t have sex for lots of reasons.”
Collins also stated that if you’re in a relationship with someone with HIV that you should “keep your pants on”.
“…you’re being asked to just simply keep your pants on. This is not a drug that is funding people with HIV. It is funding people without HIV so that they can sleep with people with HIV. That’s it.”
“We understand many people’s concerns with the cost of PrEP being free on the NHS. However, this will only be 0.02% of the total NHS budget for the year. The short term cost outweighs the long term as currently the lifetime cost for treatment of someone living with HIV equates to nearly £380,000. PrEP has shown to decrease new HIV infections by 18% in cities like San Francisco. A similar reduction in the UK, year on year, could save the NHS and the tax payer millions in the long term. Too many people are becoming HIV-positive and we now have a tool that can help stop HIV. GMFA believes that PrEP should be free to anyone who is at high risk of becoming HIV-positive. We need PrEP now.”
Ian Green, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said
“Every day the NHS delays access to PrEP, 17 people are diagnosed with HIV – and the lifetime cost to the NHS for each diagnosis of HIV is £360,000. PrEP must be prioritised and made available now to those at risk.
“There is still a long way to go before people at risk have access to this groundbreaking pill that will protect them from HIV – but thanks to today’s decision, we are a step closer to a world without HIV transmissions.”
According to the UKIP Leader many HIV patients in the UK have written to him to say that they are struggling to get HIV drugs because of immigration.
Speaking on LBC, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage was answering a question from Nick Ferrari about whether he and UKIP were politically toxic. Answering, Farage brought up the controversy he caused during a leaders’ debate earlier in the year, when he made “outrageous” claims about “health tourism” with immigrants with HIV – testing positive in the UK, obtaining medication on the NHS costing £25,000 per patient per year.
During the debate he said, He didn’t believe in health tourism and “We need to put the National Health Service there for British people and families.”
However Farage said, that since the debate and making those claims he has received letters from “lots of HIV sufferers in this country” who have said that their “local clinics are unrecognisable (with) the number of people that are here”.
He went on to say that people were “struggling to get the drugs” they needed.
However THEGAYUK reached out to the NHS media team to ask if they were aware of any problems of drug shortages in clinics.
A spokesman for NHS England said,
“We have not been made aware of any capacity or drug shortage issues in HIV clinics.”
A caller to a radio station talks about how he lost everything when he came out as gay to his Jehovah Witnesses family.
A caller to LBC spoke about how he lost everything within 24 hours after he came out to his parents. The man called James, spoke about how his entire family “disowned” him because of their religious beliefs. He and his family are Jehovah Witnesses.
James’s heart wrenching call also revealed that he hasn’t spoken to his mother in 4 years after he came out to her. Whilst he was recovering in a psychiatric hospital she phoned him one night to ask if he was gay.
After he said that he was gay, his mother said,
“Well I’ll always love you, but, if you ever have a boyfriend, you know we can never see you again and you will be disowned.”
He said that although he still lives in the same town as his family, if they see him about, they stop whatever they are doing and walk away.
