Andrew Neil has hit out at the board of GB News in an in-depth interview about his doomed time with the station.
The veteran broadcaster joined the venture last December and was appointed channel chairman and host of its flagship weekday programme.
Just two weeks after GB News launched in June Neil ventured off on holiday, however, and earlier this month it was confirmed that he would not be returning.
"The reason I am quite emotional is that I'm angry," he told the Daily Mail. "I thought after ten years at the Economist, 11 years at The Sunday Times, the launch of Sky Television and Sky News, ten years as publisher of The Scotsman and, for 25 years working to become the BBC's premier interviewer, GB News would be the final big career move and then I'd pack it all in.
"I am angry. I'm also quite unforgiving of this chief executive and the board. They are the ones who put me through this – the disrespect.
"Why pay me all that money? Why make me chairman? Why make me lead presenter and then just not listen?
"So I'm angry that what should have been my last big media gig – which, if we'd made it work, could have been great – turned out to be the worst eight months of my career, the worst by far, from early January to last weekend when I finally got free of everything.
"Don't forget, I've been on the IRA hit list twice. I've had special protection – anti-terrorist forces outside my house. I've been on the jihadists' hit list. This feels worse."
A spokesperson for GB News told the newspaper that Neil did not raise concerns about the editorial direction of the channel with his fellow board members, adding that the journalist has made his exit "unnecessarily contentious".
Neil Wilkes
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