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Veteran newsreader Alastair Stewart has hit out at the “political correctness brigade” and promised to ignore “no-go areas” in his new job. After 40 years at ITV, Mr Stewart will start a new presenting role on “anti-woke” channel GB News on June 13. In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, the 69-year-old vowed to deliver free speech and honest debate to its target audience of “ordinary people”.
Founded by former BBC presenter Andrew Neil, GB News wants to be the antidote to the “woke” agendas driving other broadcasters.
Mr Stewart said: “Political correctness is not something to be adhered to.
“It is to be respected and broken through. I have a real thing about political correctness. It makes political discourse like walking on eggshells. You’re having a really good conversation with people, but it’s a public conversation, and people pick and choose their words so it’s not sexist, it’s not misogynist or this, that or the other.
“So long as you respect everybody, you can talk openly and freely. That’s what we will be doing at GB News.”
Mr Stewart voluntarily stepped down as an ITV News presenter after admitting to multiple “errors of judgement” in his use of social media which breached ITN editorial guidelines.
In December 2020, he furiously criticised Remainers for condemning the deal Prime Minister Boris Johnson had just struck with the EU.
Mr Stewart wrote on Twitter: “Had those who wanted the UK to remain in the EU been half as vociferous and articulate during the campaign as they are now, in condemning the deal, they might have won.
“The sound of the stable door slamming shut, as the bolted horse canters away, is deafening.”
Former chairman of the European Research Group and Conservative MP Steve Baker agreed with Mr Stewart and replied: “I would have loved two serious campaigns, slogging it out over the details of trade policy and democracy, politics and power and how they are restrained and kept serving the public good.
“But there we are.
“Time to move on for us all.”
After almost a year of negotiations and multiple missed deadlines, Britain and the EU secured a post-Brexit trade deal on Christmas Eve.
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The chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisation (NFFO), Barrie Deas, accused Mr Johnson of having “bottled it” on fishing quotas to secure only “a fraction of what the UK has a right to under international law”.
Mr Deas said the Prime Minister had “sacrificed” fishing to other priorities, with the subject proving to be an enduring sticking point during negotiations as they raced to get a deal by the end of the transition period on December 31.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also accused the Conservatives of having “sold out Scottish fishing all over again”, adding: “Promises they knew couldn’t be delivered, duly broken.”
Moreover, three Labour frontbenchers quit their roles after defying leader Sir Keir Starmer’s order to vote for the deal in January.
Sir Keir said Labour had to back the “thin” deal because it was better than “no deal”.
However, three shadow frontbenchers – Tonia Antoniazzi, Helen Hayes and Florence Eshalomi – abstained in protest.
Ms Antoniazzi wrote in her resignation letter: “I pledged to my constituents to never vote for anything that would make them worse off.
“This deal is nothing close to what is being sold to the British public, and it does not meet Labour’s six tests for a Brexit deal.
“The language, behaviour, disrespect and chumocracy that this country has had to endure from this government will continue if we endorse their actions in any way.”
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