Ofcom investigates GB News over Esther McVey and Philip Davies' show

Philip Davies and Esther McVey are husband and wife, GB News co-hosts and sitting MPs

Media watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether a GB News programme hosted by two Conservative MPs broke impartiality rules.

There have been 39 complaints about an edition of Esther McVey and Philip Davies' show on 11 March.

In it, the pair interviewed Chancellor Jeremy Hunt about his Budget.

Ofcom said it would examine whether it complied with rules about politicians presenting programmes, and whether it included a sufficient range of views.

GB News has not commented on the investigation.

Ofcom's rules say politicians are not allowed to be newsreaders, interviewers or reporters in news programmes "unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified".

However, they are allowed to host current affairs shows, as long as a range of views are reflected.

Whether Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip qualifies as a news or current affairs programme, and whether a broad enough range of opinions was included, is likely to be central to Ofcom's eventual ruling.

'Not a cooking programme'

"That will be the question - whether or not it is a news programme, or whether or not it is a wider opinion and current affairs show," Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes told a parliamentary committee on 14 March.

SNP MP John Nicolson, a member of the DCMS committee, told her he thought it broke the rules. "It is a news programme, obviously," he said. "Two MPs are interviewing, on a news channel, a Tory chancellor, about the news.

"That is a news interview... It's not a cooking programme."

The interview was broadcast four days before Mr Hunt delivered his Budget.

Announcing its investigation on Monday, an Ofcom spokesman said: "We are investigating whether this programme broke our rules requiring news and current affairs to be presented with due impartiality.

"Our investigation will look at the programme's compliance with our rules on politicians presenting programmes, and whether it included an appropriately wide range of significant views relating to a matter of major political controversy or current public policy."

Also on Monday, Ofcom decided not to launch an investigation into an interview by Nadine Dorries, another sitting MP, with former prime minister Boris Johnson, on rival channel Talk TV on 3 February.

"We concluded that the programme was a non-news programme and therefore could be presented by a politician; and adequately reflected alternative viewpoints and provided sufficient context," Ofcom said.