Outrage as GB News interviews former Holocaust denier about demographics on primetime

GB News has provoked a fierce backlash from community groups by interviewing an alleged former Holocaust denier on one of its most popular programmes.

The guest, however, denied that he had ever questioned the Shoah, blaming “fake, photoshopped screenshots” created by those attempting to “smear” him.

On Saturday night, during a regular two-hour show on the channel, presenter Neil Oliver interviewed freelance journalist Peter Imanuelsen on the topic of population decline in the West. 

In a clip that has since been deleted from the GB News Twitter account, Oliver — who has previously attracted criticism for comparing Covid vaccine laws to Nazi health restrictions on Jews — introduced Imanuelsen as a “journalist and political commentator”. 

Imanuelsen appeared on the show to discuss the decline of birthrates in developed countries in the wake of the covid pandemic, with both men positing that vaccination may be one of the causes for lower birthrates in 2022. 

But in 2017, the journalist, who tweets under the username “Peter Sweden”, was the subject of a report by anti-racism group Hope Not Hate alleging that he had posted Holocaust denial on Twitter, with one tweet claiming that “Hitler had some good points”.

The year before, he had allegedly tweeted: “The claim that six million jews were gassed seem highly unprobable[sic]. The concentration camps didnt have the facilities for that.”

And in August 2016, he had allegedly tweeted: "the Holocaust is a lie." Imanuelsen claims that these screengrabs were fabricated.

A Board of Deputies spokesperson said: “It is unacceptable for a broadcaster which wants to be taken seriously to invite guests with a history of Holocaust denial onto its channel. GB News should issue a public apology and operate with far greater due diligence going forward.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism joined the outcry. A spokesman said: “It is extraordinary that GB News would platform someone who has allegedly propagated Holocaust denial and repugnant conspiracies about Jews.

“This is, at best, a monumental vetting failure that should give the channel pause about where it looks for some of its guests. 

“GB News was right to delete the video, but we and the general public still expect an apology from the station.”

But in a lengthy statement to the JC, Imanuelsen said: “Holocaust denial is a view I never had, and to claim that I did is an outright lie. Neither is there any proof to back it up, just some fake, photoshopped screenshots with so-called citations from me that are either completely untrue or taken completely out of context.

“It doesn’t require much technical skill to open a web browser in developer mode and create a fake statement.”

A Spokesperson for GB News said: “We’ve been made aware that Peter Sweden, also known as Peter Imanuelsen, who appeared on GB News yesterday to talk about falling birth rates, has been accused of being a holocaust denier.

"As a result of this information, we have removed clips of Mr Sweden’s interview from our website and our social media channels while we investigate.

"GB News abhors anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism.”

In his statement to the JC, Imanuelsen went further, querying the veracity of screenshots of an apparent apology he had reportedly made in the past for his alleged former Holocaust denial.

In an apparent screenshot of a now-deleted tweet posted in July 2017, he seemingly said Holocaust denial was a view “long left behind me”.

He apparently added: “My views now are very different and I strongly regret things I have said when I was young.”

He also subsequently appeared to clarify that he now believed the Holocaust did happen and that it was a “horrific crime”.

But in an email to the JC, Imanuelsen said: “The views I have previously talked about leaving behind are many, but Holocaust denial was never one of those views as I have never denied the Holocaust, and as such I could never leave behind a view I never had to begin with.”

Imanuelsen was also involved in a row between the Board of Deputies and right-wing media personality Katie Hopkins in 2017, after the Board called on Hopkins to apologise for posing for a photo with Imanuelsen at an anti-immigration event in Sicily.

In full, Imanuelsen’s statement to the JC said:

“I find it sad to see the mainstream media smearing people with lies, stating that I have been/or are a Holocaust denier. This is completely untrue.

“I have never denied the Holocaust and it is a lie from the far-left trying to discredit me with views I never had. The truth is that when I was young and started to see the lies in the media, like the lies they now publish about me, I as many lost trust in them and speculated in different views – but Holocaust denial was not one of them.

“These views, like doubts about the moon landing, conspiracy theories about the ‘New World Order’, whether the winners of WW2 wrote the history books too positive about themselves and many other views that I have long left behind and strongly distanced myself from.

“I find it so disingenuous to smear people like me with lies, and secondly that people are so full of hate that they cannot accept that someone had bad views and left them behind.

But Holocaust denial is a view I never had, and to claim that I did is an outright lie. 

“Neither is there any proof to back it up, just some fake, photoshopped screenshots with so-called citations from me that are either completely untrue or taken completely out of context. 

“It doesn’t require much technical skill to open a web browser in developer mode and create a fake statement. 

That I never have been a Holocaust denier is clearly proved to any honest person reading what I actually have written both on my homepage and my Substack.”