A recent GB News instalment has become the channel’s most complained-about programme ever, after guest Caroline Farrow appeared to link the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia.
Amid staunch criticism from figures such as Green Party leader Zack Polanski and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Bimini, the programme prompted more than 9,000 complaints to broadcast regulator Ofcom.
The incident in question occurred during the Sunday 5 July episode of Alex Armstrong Tonight, which discussed the previous day’s Pride event in London.
Farrow, who was appearing on the right-wing channel as part of a debate over whether Pride marches are suitable for children, is described as a Catholic journalist and serves as manager in campaigns global for CitizenGO, an ultra-conservative advocacy group.
On the programme, she told host Alex Armstrong that Pride was “not about gay rights” and had “become about celebrating every single sexuality that isn’t heterosexuality”.
She added: “Including some very bizarre and unhealthy kinks and quirks, you know, like furries and bestiality, and even minor-attracted, they call themselves minor-attracted. You know, paedophiles.”
The comments drew outrage from a spate of public figures, with Polanski and Bimini penning an open letter to Ofcom condemning the “dangerous” remarks.
The letter read: “An open letter to Ofcom – the UK media regulator. How is it that GB News and others are allowed to say that pride is about celebrating minor attraction and bestiality when it’s not true.
“LGBTQIA+ people find these things just as abhorrent as anyone else does. Do your job and hold these channels to account. It’s so dangerous to allow lies like this to appear as fact when people don’t think critically.”
Between 7 July and 13 July alone, Ofcom registered 9,058 complaints regarding the broadcast, with Bimini responding to the news on Instagram. They wrote: “We made history! The most direct complaints to @ofcom.org.uk for a single broadcast EVER!!!! This is just the beginning. Keep sending in your complaints and have your voice heard.
“Thank you to every single person that complained. Keep the pressure up. We can’t be silenced.”
While the incident represents the most direct complaints to Ofcom over a single GB News broadcast, the overall complaints record is far higher. In January 2025, presenter Josh Howie on the GB News show Headliners made a comment linking the LGBTQ+ community to “paedos” – with a record 71,582 people filing complaints to Ofcom via the non-profit organisation Good Law Project.
A six-month investigation by the standards watchdog concluded that GB News was in breach of the broadcasting code.
Armstrong pushed back on Farrow’s statements during the initial broadcast, stating that he had reported from Pride last year for GB News and observed that “the overwhelming amount of people at Pride were there for good reasons”. He added: “I don’t think it was full of paedophiles and everything, I’m sure there are nefarious people.”
During an episode of his series last week, Armstrong addressed the controversy that had sprung from the episode.
He told viewers: “Tonight I want to address outrage from the LGBT community and press over comments made by one of our guests last weekend. We welcome robust and difficult debates on this channel, and particularly on this show. It is not, and never will be, an echo chamber for anybody. That’s why we always have a dissenting voice on all of my shows, want you to hear all aspects of every debate.
“That’s made it even more important, when guests come on my show and make statements that are considered homophobic or deeply offensive, that they are challenged and balanced by me and my guests if they do that. But sometimes I feel it’s necessary to go a bit further, and I’m going to do that tonight.
“Comments made by guests last weekend conflated gay pride with the celebration of paedophilia. This is an age-old gay trope that’s been used over a number of years to demonise and slander gay people. And as I said to the guest during that segment, it is a statement I fundamentally reject and have not witnessed when attending Pride myself. The debate we were meant to be having was around whether or not Pride was suitable for children. Those comments by guests had no place in that discussion, and in my opinion, were lazy and offensive arguments that don’t reflect my views or the views of this channel, where many LGBT people also work.”
In the speech, he also took aim at “social media commentators and activist groups” who he claims sought to “misrepresent” his views and “paint [him] as homophobic”, and maintained that Pride is “not suitable for children”.
A GB News spokesperson addressed the controversy over Farrow’s appearance in a statement: “The views in question were expressed by an interviewee during a live on-air debate and are their own. They do not reflect the views or editorial position of GB News.
“Anyone watching the programme would have seen the views were challenged by other contributors and the presenter, Alex Armstrong.”
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