The worst financial adviser in the world

“Pensioners at risk of controversial tax raid in Rachel Reeves’s budget”, screamed a recent headline on GB News, adding that the chancellor’s forthcoming plans, “Could undermine pension system!”

Leaving aside the question of whether a mole inside No.11 Downing Street is really spilling the beans to GB News, it was a strong headline, especially coming from a news outlet that has given so much prominence over the years to Liz Truss.

The blink-and-you’ll-miss-her PM is all over the news channel. Back in January, Truss was on GB news, warning that Labour was “plunging Britain into economic crisis”.

Only last week there she was again, holding forth about the British state, which, she said, was “deeply rotten”, adding that it was time to “massively overhaul our country and overhaul the state”.

It was Truss, it must be remembered, whose 2022 mini-budget was so disastrous that it collapsed not only the pound, the bond market and the mortgage market, but also threatened the foundations of the pensions industry. If a TV station cares so much about the stability of Britain’s pensions industry, should it be so much airtime to someone who did so much to undermine it – and who remains so utterly unrepentant?

And should GB News really be giving any economic or financial advice at all? Recent disclosures show that the channel lost the colossal sum of £33.4 million in 2023/4. That takes GB News’s total losses to just shy of £106 million. A nine figure loss in only three years of operation is little short of eye-watering. Pensioners in need of financial insights or expertise should probably look elsewhere.