Pity poor Darren Grimes – the GB News presenter turned deputy leader of Durham Council has been forced to get out the begging bowl after his Facebook funding stream was cut off.
Grimes used to make a tidy income from the social media site, but since being elected as a councillor is ineligible as Facebook’s rules do not allow “current elected and appointed government officials to use monetisation tools”.
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Now he has taken to X to fume that “Facebook has demonetised me for being elected as a councillor. Council allowances are hardly riches, and I gave up a TV gig to serve my community.” Grimes added a link to a site where people could donate to support his important work in posting anti-immigrant hate on social media.
For just £4 a month, fans of the rentagob right winger are promised subscriber-only posts, access to live streams and even “suggest questions to put to interesting guests in politics and media”. And if that’s not enough, “founding members” get access to a personal one-to-one Zoom call with the man himself plus two personalised videos a year – a snip at just £150!
Leaving aside that Durham Council pays Grimes £26,600 in allowances a year for what is supposed to be a part-time job, that he continues to rake in the cash from X for his near-constant posting (little of which is about his council role), that nothing stopped him combining the role with his “TV gig” and that approximately 19,000 other councillors across the UK manage to do the job without begging for donations on the internet, it’s difficult not to feel sorry for the poor lad. Dig deep, everyone!
