Plaid Cymru’s victorious candidate Lindsay Whittle was “banned” from speaking to GB News by party staff – despite thanking the People’s Channel just minutes earlier.
Political correspondent Katherine Forster had asked Mr Whittle about his late friend Hefin David just before the by-election result was announced.
He told GB News at the time: “I knew Hefin David very well. And amidst all of this euphoria and excitement that people are feeling, we must always remember with some dignity that the sad circumstances that brought around this by election.
“At every opportunity, I will pay tribute to my friend Hefin David and I always send and extend my deepest sympathy to his family and all of his friends. He was a much-respected man.”
Mr David was found hanging at his home on August 12, an inquest heard that month.
His death sparked Thursday’s by-election, and in the moments after its result was announced, Mr Whittle hailed him as a “hard act to follow”.
“I will never fill his shoes, but I promise you I will walk the same path that he did, and I can pay no finer tribute to an excellent man,” he said.
Katherine revealed that following his initial interview, he thanked this broadcaster for being “the only channel who had asked about Hefin”.
Plaid Cymru’s victorious candidate Lindsay Whittle was banned from speaking to GB News by party staff
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PA
And afterr his triumph, Katherine tried to speak to Mr Whittle again.
“He would have come to talk to us again on GB News, but his press team stopped him,” she said.
“They told me, despite the interview that we had done, despite him thanking us, that they do not engage with GB News.
“Lindsey Whittle obviously was more than happy to do so. But the powers that be implied Plaid Cymru do not want to talk to us.”
Hefin David was hailed by Lindsay Whittle as a ‘hard act to follow’
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PAIn 2023, GB News was handed a permanent ban in the Senedd in what was branded a major act of “censorship”.
The National Assembly of Wales opted to remove this broadcaster from its internal TV system in October that year, before proceeding with a permanent ban in summer 2024.
A spokesman on behalf of the presiding officer Elin Jones had claimed GB News was “deliberately offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our parliament’s values”.
And on the campaign trail ahead of the General Election, then-PM Rishi Sunak told Britain’s News Channel: “Well, the first thing I’d say is the Labour-run Welsh Parliament have banned GB News.
GB News projected a message onto the Senedd after its 2023 ban
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GB NEWS
“That tells you what they think about GB News and GB News viewers.”
While then-Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said: “This is nothing short of censorship from a supposed democratic institution.
He added: “This wrongheaded decision needs to be reversed to give elected politicians the ability to watch their news channel of choice on Senedd televisions – and that includes Britain’s News Channel.”
GB News has approached Plaid Cymru for comment following Friday morning’s “ban”.
Anyone who is in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide can call the Samaritans anonymously for free from a UK phone on 116 123 or go to samaritans.org.