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Dehumanising and sensationalist language about immigrants and asylum seekers is on the rise on right-wing news channel GB News, new research for Byline Times suggests.
Analysis of GB News transcripts for this outlet, conducted by campaign group Stop Funding Hate, reveals a big increase in language about a supposed “invasion” of migrants to the UK, as well as incendiary rhetoric about people fleeing war being of “fighting age”.
There has been a nine-fold increase in “invasion” rhetoric about immigrants and refugees on GB News from May-August this year, compared to the same period last year – from 16 instances May-Aug 2024 to 138 instances May-Aug 2025.
The UN Human Rights Commissioner has condemned language around refugees supposedly “invading” countries as harmful. The United Nations’ commissioner Volker Türk denounced the language in November 2022 when Suella Braverman used it, calling it a “horrible word.”
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The analysis of GB News transcripts for use of the words “invasion”, “invaded”, “invading” and “invaders” in an immigration context, shows:
- Between 1st May 2025 and the end of August 2025, GB News aired 138 claims of an immigrant “invasion” (over one claim every day).
- On the 26th July, after Trump had given a speech in Scotland alleging a “horrible invasion” of immigrants in Europe, saw 17 claims from GB News contributors of an supposed ‘invasion’.
- These findings of 138 immigrant invasion claims from May to end of August 2025 contrast starkly with the same four months in 2024, where there were only 16 references to the far-right trope.
- It shows this period in 2025 therefore saw almost 9 times as many claims of an invasion than in 2024.
- There is a big up-tick in the use of the phrase “fighting age” regarding male refugees and asylum seekers coming to Britain. Stop Funding Hate estimates it marks an increase from around 15 from May – Aug 2024) to around 65 (May – Aug 2025) – an increase of around four times.
Stop Funding Hate have filed several recent Ofcom complaints into dehumanising language on GB News which were not investigated.
They include a broadcast on 2nd April 2025, GB News host Patrick Christys said in reference to Donald Trump’s quote about “foreign scavengers”, “I think that a lot of Brits can relate to someone wanting to clamp down on, quote, unquote, ‘foreign scavengers’”.
And on 23 March 2025, regular GB News ‘comedian’ guest Lewis Schaffer appeared on the show Headliners, during which he used the phrase “dirty foreigners” multiple times – e.g. “you watch this country that you’ve worked hard for basically being given to dirty foreigners” (23:10) and “why don’t we just admit that we just want as many dirty foreigners into the country as possible?” (23:13). The host told him to stop, but there was no apology or acknowledgment of harm.
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On the frequency of the word “illegal” before discussion of migrants (the vast majority of migrants are here legally), Good Law Project published separate stark data recently. It showed that the word “illegal” was the single most common way the channel describes people arriving in the UK – despite so-called illegal migration accounting for less than five per cent of the UK’s annual immigration total.
The Good Law Project research went on: “Shouldering aside every other word in the English language, the adjective “illegal” appears before the words “migrant” or “immigrant” a staggering 53% of the time [in GB News coverage]. And when you include a basket of terms connected to illegality, such as “boat”, “undocumented” and “Calais”, the proportion swells to 66%.”
Stop Funding Hate also found 64 cases of GB News broadcasting the term “fighting age” in reference to men entering the UK via boats, excluding quotes/broadcasted press conferences etc for May 2025-end of Aug 2025). It compares to just 13 for the same period of 2024. That marks almost a fivefold increase.
A spokesperson for campaign group Stop Funding Hate, which views GB News as a platform for hate speech, said it was “obviously dangerous, violent rhetoric – and reflects the escalation of anti-immigrant language in media and politics, even among existing anti-immigrant outlets like GB News.”
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“Invasion rhetoric seems to align with the talking points of the growing anti-immigrant protest movement in the UK.”
Byline Times asked broadcast regulator Ofcom what assessment they’d made of this kind of language to the current surge in racist hate crimes – particularly given the documented link between “invasion” rhetoric and far-right terrorism. Language of a supposed Muslim “invasion” was used by the perpetrator of the anti-Muslim Christchurch terrorist attack in 2019.
Campaign group Stop Funding Hate believes this represents a clear escalation in anti-migrant and anti-refugee rhetoric on the channel, possibly emulating the Great Replacement conspiracy theory which claims that there is a deliberate plot to replace the white population in the Western world with refugees, Muslims and non-white people.
Richard Wilson, co-founder of Stop Funding Hate, told Byline Times: “If you advertise on GB News, this is what you’re enabling.”
“By relentlessly painting refugees and migrants as a violent, existential threat, media outlets risk making racist attacks seem more acceptable, and fuelling far right terrorism.”
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He added: “Moments before the Christchurch terror attack, the killer published a manifesto presenting his act of mass-murder as a defence against “the invaders currently occupying European soil.”
An Ofcom spokesperson told Byline Times: “Our rules apply equally to all broadcasters. We enforce these rules fairly and proportionately, acting independently and impartially at all times.
“Crucially, we are required by law to take into account the rights of broadcasters and their audiences to freedom of expression. This means broadcasters have editorial freedom to include controversial opinions and robust debate on topical issues in their programmes, providing they comply with the Broadcasting Code.
“We assess each complaint we receive, taking account of all the relevant facts and the specific context in each case. Where we find a breach of our rules, we publish fully reasoned decisions based on the evidence.”
But Richard Wilson called on Ofcom to get tougher: “We’re already seeing a surge in racist hate crimes in communities across Britain. If Ofcom is unwilling to do its job here, then MPs – and the government – urgently need to step in before this dangerous situation gets worse.”
GB News was contacted for comment but did not respond.
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