'Height of hypocrisy': Caroline Nokes who demanded GB News be shut down earns THOUSANDS from rival channel
Caroline Nokes - the MP who has called for GB News to be shut down - is on the payroll of its rival Talk TV
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Conservative MP Caroline Nokes - who has called for GB News to be shut down - is on the payroll of rival news channel Talk TV, it has been revealed.
Nokes, Tory minister for Women and Equalities, was paid £300 per hour as a regular panellist on the channel’s late-night newspaper review show, First Edition.
Publicly-available records on the Parliamentary Register of Members’ Financial Interests shows Nokes - who tore into GB News on BBC's Newsnight - was paid £6,300 by Talk TV over six months earlier this year, including £1800 for January, £1200 for February, £1200 for March, £900 for April, £600 for May and June.
Critics said the revelation Nokes is on the payroll of rival Talk TV highlights a clear conflict of interest.
Nokes - who tore into GB News on BBC's Newsnight - was paid a staggering £6,300 by Talk TV over six months earlier this year
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One former Conservative minister, who accused Nokes of being "practically a Lib Dem", told GB News: "It's embarrassing to see the constant attacks on colleagues and contrarian positions on practically every issue the party tries to campaign on.
"Likewise it’s the height of hypocrisy to criticise a channel she’s appeared on several times, then tried to explain away as not being interviewed by another Conservative MP, only for footage to emerge showing she has done exactly that.
"Even worse is the chilling call for GB News to be shut down when she is earning thousands of pounds working for a competitor."
Another Tory MP said: "Caroline is always criticising someone or an organisation.
"GB News offers a real alternative to the left-wing media. Given that she earns an inside table income from another TV channel, you have to question her motives."
Meanwhile, Sir John Hayes questioned calls to shut the channel down, saying it is a necessary means of "getting an alternative view to the mainstream liberal left media".
The leader of the influential Common Sense Group of Tory MPs added: "Certainly that's become more pressing given the increasing dominance of out-of-touch, privileged bourgeois liberals like Gary Lineker."
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis echoed this, saying: "It is alarming to see calls for GB News to be shut down in the wake of Laurence Fox's comments.
"Those pushing for it clearly lack any comprehension of free speech."
He added: "Fox's comments were crass and rude, indeed disgusting.
"But TV channels should not be shut down because one of the people on their channel says something offensive on live broadcast.
"No other channel (BBC and Russell Brand?) faces this. This is supposed to be a democracy, not an authoritarian state.
"GB News gives a voice to a swathe of the population that has long been ignored by much of the rest of the press. Why do those seeking its closure have such a problem with that?"
In her Newsnight appearance, Nokes, the MP for Romsey and Southampton North, described members of the public who watch GB News as "strange".
She also took a swipe at Tory MPs for taking second jobs in journalism – a clear attack at parliamentary colleagues including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson, Phillip Davies and Ester McVey.
Yesterday, GB News revealed that despite Nokes' demands to have the channel shut down she had actually appeared nine times on the broadcaster herself – including an appearance on the Live Desk just nine days before.
The register also reveals that Nokes - who has claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds in taxpayer-funded expenses in recent years - regularly enjoys lavish hospitality and freebies from corporate interests.
In February this year, she accepted a ticket to the Brit Awards and 'hospitality' from Google UK worth a staggering £1,300.
David Davis said Nokes' comments were 'alarming'
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A month later she bagged two tickets for the Cheltenham Festival, again with corporate hospitality thrown in, worth £700 from Hestview, a subsidiary of Sky Bet.
The following day, although Parliament was sitting, she was off to the races again, this time tucking into 'food and refreshments' worth £480 courtesy of Jockey Club Racecourses Ltd.
Responding to GB News' request for comment, Nokes said: "The context of the discussion on Wednesday was around MPs hosting shows.
"I have never hosted a show on GB News, I have never been interviewed by a fellow MP hosting a show on GB News, I have only ever appeared as an interviewee or a panellist on any television programme."
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MILLIE COOKE
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