GB News declares war on 'foreign-sounding' names

Delving into the complex world of etymology, GB News presenter Martin Daubney last week revealed research into the names of defendants charged with sex offences and declared that a huge amount were “foreign-sounding”.

Daubney, former editor of Loaded and page3.com, used his show to unveil research by Marcus Johnstone, a solicitor and GB News fave, which he said suggested the average proportion of “non-British” sounding defendants over the period studied was 51% in Birmingham, 55% in Bradford and 56% at Snaresbrook crown court in East London. It also found that the average proportion of defendants charged with sex offences who had “non-British” names was 41% in Bradford and 31% in Sheffield.

Daubney said the results were “genuinely shocking”, although conceded “no doubt the methodology is incomplete”, while Johnstone himself admitted that: “We know that the analysis based on names is not scientific. We know there’s problems with that, but it’s the best that we can get at the moment because there’s no other data being obtained.”

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Now Ofcom have got involved after a number of complaints, including from Anna Sabine, the Liberal Democrats’ culture, media and sport spokesperson, who claimed that the way the figures were compiled was “unverified and frankly racist”. GB News has dismissed her complaint as “politically motivated”.

It’s unclear what Daubney and Johnstone mean by “foreign-sounding” or how far back, etymologically, they wish to go. Perhaps they could examine the “genuinely shocking” number of “non-British” sounding names among GB News’s own presenting roster, including Nigel Farage (French Huguenot), Patrick Christys (Norse/Scandinavian), Nana Akua (Ghanaian), Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner (both Old French), Camilla Tominey and Ellie Costello (both Gaelic), Michael Portillo (Spanish), Gloria De Piero (Italian), Neil Oliver (Old French/Germanic) and Josh Howie (Old Norse).

Or indeed Daubney, of Norman/French origin.