GB News reflects on Chris Hope's 'most unforgettable and uplifting' political story of the year

In a year of relentless breaking political news, one Westminster story stands out - above all - as the most moving.

It was the moment Craig Mackinlay, the MP for South Thanet, appeared on GB News to reveal that he’d lost his four limbs to sepsis. The heartbreaking revelation left his colleagues in Westminster speechless.

For months, GB News political editor Christopher Hope had been privately supporting the Tory MP through what would become a life changing diagnosis, visiting him in hospital, slowly gaining his trust.

And that was why, when Craig decided to bravely speak publicly about what had happened for the first time, he chose to speak to Christopher and GB News.

In his special hour-long GB News documentary, Christopher revealed how Craig's illness started when he experienced cold-like symptoms just before he was due to go on holiday the previous September.

He explained to GB News viewers how Craig was then taken to hospital by ambulance only for his limbs started to become discoloured after two or three days.

Craig was put into an induced coma for 16 days after doctors diagnosed multiple organ failure and gave him a 5 per cent chance of survival.

He was moved to St Thomas’s Hospital in London after coming out of a coma but medics were left with no alternative but to have them amputated in December 2023.

Instead of wallowing in what had happened to him, Craig’s approach to his illness was both stoic and determined: and this became the narrative of Christopher's film.

He told GB News how his newly-fitted prosthetic arms and legs had given him a second chance at life which he was determined to capitalise on. He told how he was even planning on being known as the Bionic MP.

Christopher's documentary revealing for the first time to a shocked Westminster what had happened to Craig aired in prime time on GB News on the evening of May 21 2024.

The following day, May 22, Craig returned to the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Questions and was given a rare standing ovation by all the MPs on all sides of the Commons' chamber, as he raised his prosthetic arms in the air.

At the time of his interviews with GB News for the documentary, Craig was a Conservative MP and had plans to fight the forthcoming general election.

However later that same day, just hours after Craig's triumphant return to the Commons, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had surprisingly called the General Election for July 4.

This meant that Craig's goal - to stand as a candidate in an expected Autumn 2024 election - became impossible as he was still in recovery.

Craig subsequently made the heartbreaking decision to step down. Again, this was a revelation he decided to share exclusively with Christopher and GB News.

Christopher's documentary of Craig’s story was followed by hundreds of news outlets across the UK - meaning it was eventually seen and read by millions.

This ensured that the GB News' documentary - the 'Bionic MP' - will remain one of 2024's most unforgettable and uplifting political stories.