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British ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson: Moderator to be

Photo: Frank Augstein / dpa

New role for Boris Johnson: The British ex-prime minister has announced his entry into the right-wing news channel GB News. In a video posted by GB News on X, formerly Twitter, Johnson said he would share his "blunt views" on the TV channel.

"I'm going to share with this remarkable, new television network my blunt views on everything from Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, how we're addressing all these challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead," Johnson said.

The GB News website said the 59-year-old would join the channel "next year" and work as a "presenter, programmer and commentator". Johnson will "play a key role in the channel's coverage of the UK general election and next year's US elections," it added.

Other former Tory leaders work for GB News.

Johnson is not the first Conservative politician to join GB News. Former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, deputy party leader Lee Anderson and MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies have also joined the channel, reports the BBC.

GB News has been broadcasting since 2021. The TV channel offers a mix of news, opinions, and analysis. In doing so, it resembles conservative channels from the USA such as Fox News rather than its British competition. The broadcaster has already violated impartiality rules in force in the UK on several occasions.

Johnson, who was instrumental in driving the movement for Britain's exit from the European Union, became prime minister in 2019 and won the election that same year. After a series of scandals that cost him the support of many Conservative Party MPs, he resigned in 2022. Johnson worked as a journalist even before he began his political career. Since June, he has been writing columns for the tabloid »Daily Mail«.

col/Reuters