GB News presenter Ellie Costello has taken issue with a fashion designer who threw away her CBE in protest over Britain’s stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Katherine Hamnett expressed her “disgust” with the British Government’s response to destruction in Gaza since 7 October, when Hamas attacked Israel.
The 76-year-old was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to the fashion industry in the 2011 New Year honours.
On Tuesday, she opted to do away with her medal while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase: “Disgusted to be British.”
Ellie Costello was left furious at Hamnett's gesture
GB NEWS / INSTAGRAM / KATHERINE HAMNETT
GB News presenters Ellie Costello and Stephen Dixon were both left with a similar level of disdain.
“She must be quite important if she’s got a CBE”, said Dixon.
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“She said it should ‘go in the bin like Sunak and Starmer’.
“What offends me is the fact that she’s wearing a T-shirt saying disgusted to be British.
“That I have an issue with.”
Ellie Costello added: “If you hate the country you live in so very much, you can move elsewhere.
The fashion designer said her CBE belongs in the bin 'along with Sunak and Starmer'
INSTAGRAM / KATHERINE HAMNETT
Ellie Costello and Stephen Dixon reacted to the gesture
GB NEWS
“You don’t have to be here.”
In a video posted to Instagram, Hamnett shows her followers her CBE medal which she casually tosses into a waste bin.
The fashion designer then directs her followers to visit the parliamentary monitoring site theyworkforyou.com, adding: “Find your MP and tell them you’ll never vote for them again unless they support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”
She then informs viewers as to where they can purchase her T-shirt.
It comes amid a backdrop of bedlam in Parliament on the matter which has seen Speaker Lindsay Hoyle clinging onto his post.
Some 67 MPs, more than a tenth of the Commons, have signed a motion proposed by senior Conservative William Wragg expressing no confidence in the Speaker over his handling of the Gaza ceasefire debate on Wednesday.
Sir Lindsay’s explanation that he was motivated by concern about MPs’ security has sparked further debate about the impact of threats and intimidation around the work of Parliament.
Rishi Sunak said on Thursday: “Parliament is an important place for us to have these debates. And just because some people may want to stifle that with intimidation or aggressive behaviour, we should not bend to that and change how Parliament works.
“That’s a very slippery slope.”