Last year, the knives finally came out for Dan Wootton. It was a day late and a dollar short, but still, it happened and the collective schadenfreude was glorious. Wootton had operated with impunity for so long, from his blackmail schemes to allegations of abuse to his rampant racism, sexism and general vileness. It all came to a head last September when Wootton was fired from the Mail (he was a columnist) and suspended from his position at GB News, all within a 24-hour period. There was a police investigation too, although Wootton recently claimed that he’d been “cleared.” Reportedly, several of Wootton’s former employers launched in-house investigations into his conduct, but I haven’t heard anything about any of their findings. Now GB News has terminated Wootton’s contract following his five-month-plus suspension, and Wootton is reportedly looking to relaunch himself in America.
Dan Wootton has finally been axed from his £600,000-a-year GB News role after the broadcasting regulator upheld a complaint over the misogyny row which saw him suspended from the channel five months ago. Wootton has been off-air since 27 September last year when he and Laurence Fox made derogatory comments about a female journalist on Dan Wootton Tonight, which resulted in 8,867 complaints to Ofcom – making it 2023’s most complained about broadcast.
In its judgement, which found that GB News was in breach of ‘generally accepted standards’, Ofcom revealed that it had recently been sent new evidence by lawyers for the channel which it had previously been “unable” to provide due to an “‘internal employment process”.
The judgement, released on Monday, said: “On Friday 1 March 2024… solicitors on behalf of the licensee [GB News] sent Ofcom new evidence which it said it had been unable to send previously due to an internal employment process. The solicitors said this information supported the licensee’s position that it had asked Mr Wootton to read out an apology and he refused, but it had been unable to give Ofcom this information until this point as ‘it was considered unfair to Mr Wootton… during an employment process’. The licensee asked Ofcom to delay publication of the decision so that Ofcom could consider the information.”
Given this detail, the publication of Ofcom’s decision seemingly confirms that Wootton’s internal employment process with GB News is now over. Wootton has also been removed from the channel’s list of presenters online. While GB News did not respond to a request for comment regarding Wootton’s employment status, an insider told Byline Times: “He’s definitely gone for good.” It is not known whether Wootton received a pay-off as part of his departure or whether he retains his share-holding in the channel.
Another source said Wootton is considering a move to the US, which will see voters head to the polls in November’s Presidential Election. His lawyer, Donal Blaney, has business links to Rebekah Mercer, a billionaire Donald Trump donor.
“As we could well see the re-election as US President of Donald Trump in November, Dan hopes his polemic, hard-right rhetoric will do well in America,” the source said. “He also knows his mainstream media career in the UK is over and wants a new start where his past behaviours are less likely to follow him around.”
While I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the American right-wing cable news channels hires Wootton, they’ll discover the same thing that Piers Morgan’s American employers learned, which is that Britain’s right-wing nutjobs don’t translate to American culture or airwaves. And yes, I know Wootton is from New Zealand, but he’s operated in the British media for like two decades and that’s the only way he knows how to exist, in the British media’s toxic, in-house stew of shenanigans. Even if he gets a gig with, like, OANN or even Fox News, what does he really have to say other than “I love everything about Donald Trump, what a great guy?” As for Wootton being fired from GB News… I hope he didn’t get a payout, but he probably did.
Screencaps courtesy of GB News.
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