‘Serial Liar’: GB News Hosts Blast Network’s Boris Johnson Hire

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Friday announcement that he’d be joining GB News in the new year ignited a firestorm over the weekend as hosts Neil Oliver and John Cleese angrily protested his addition.

The polarising hire received a scathing response from host Oliver who expressed his rage during a monologue on Saturday. On his GB News show Neil Oliver Live the presenter did not hold back on criticising Johnson as part of a broader rant about “dreadful people in charge” who seem to “suffer no consequences.”

Oliver’s rant on Johnson included accusations that the former prime minister “locked down a country in lockstep with all the rest” during the Covid pandemic which, in his view, led to significant death and economic damage. He also alleged that in promoting the Covid vaccine, Johnson pushed medical products on citizens that were neither safe nor effective, even in terms of self-regulatory policies within the pharmaceutical industry.

The host drew a parallel between Johnson and other former political leaders who have embarked on lucrative careers in the lecture circuit. He said: “The wages of sin, as it turns out, come in seven figures, or eight.”

In July 2022, Johnson stepped down from his position as Prime Minister following the Partygate scandal and a series of other controversies. The politician made a brief return to the backbenches but earlier this year decided to leave Parliament altogether.

Likewise, comedian Cleese, renowned for his involvement in Monty Python, and who is set to launch his 10-part series The Dinosaur Hour on GB News, joined the chorus of disapproval. Cleese expressed disbelief in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the network would provide a platform to a “proven serial liar.”

This latest controversy has added to the ongoing debate surrounding GB News, which previously home to controversial anti-establishment analysis of Covid and climate denial now employs close to a dozen sitting and former politicians.

Johnson’s inclusion as a presenter has further ignited the flames of criticism and debate within the network and outside it.