Eamonn Holmes feels his departure from ITV was ‘political’ and stemmed from his concerns about the safety of 5G.
Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary took over as regular Friday hosts of This Morning in November 2020, replacing Eamonn, 63, and his wife Ruth Langsford, also 63.
The couple continued to host the show until December 2021, when they announced their resignation.
They were ITV regulars for 15 years until leaving.
Eamonn has been quite vocal about his departure from the network, claiming that he was never told precisely why he was being replaced.
Last year, it was reported that Eamonn was fired because ‘viewers no longer wanted to watch him,’ but he has claimed that he departed the channel only to work for GB News, where he currently appears.
However, in his most recent explosive interview with Dan Wootton, the Irish broadcaster agreed with the journalist when he said, ‘It feels like, if somebody disputes Carolyn McCall’s “woke” narrative, they’re gone.’
‘Absolutely. There’s no question about that,’ Eamonn said, in reference to the ITV executive.
‘They like a certain order, even if that order is corrupt.
‘It doesn’t matter if they’re bending the rules or breaking the rules, as long as they instigate lockdown, then it’s their way or the highway, but none of them are even honest.’
He went on to say that Emma Gormley, ITV’s director of daytime, was the one who informed him of his dismissal.
‘McCall, even though the order came from her to get rid of me, it was through Emma Gormley. There’s never a reason given. They can’t be upfront about it.’
‘There’s certainly a political element,’ he argued.
Eamonn went on to say that he was fired from ITV immediately after issues concerning 5G surfaced.
‘I wasn’t found guilty of anything, by Ofcom or anyone else, that it was me saying when a reporter said, “5G is perfectly safe, of course!”, and I said, “Who says so?”, and he said, “But that’s what the government says, it’s what everyone says”, so I said, “Well, you should always be free to question the narrative.”
‘Apparently, that was equivalent to me saying, “5G spreads Covid”, which I never once said. But I said you should be able to question the narrative about all things.’
Eamonn agreed once again when Dan suggested that the ‘role of a journalist’ is to challenge things.
‘They said cigarette smoking was safe, they said alcohol abuse was safe, and then suddenly it’s not!
‘Can you believe a word that comes out of these governments? That comes out of 10 Downing Street? If you’d ask if 10 Downing Street have influence on ITV, I’d say yes, they have.
‘Certain advertisers have influence. They said, “We represent 5G, we’re gonna withdraw £10million of advertising if you don’t get rid of this guy!”‘
When Eamonn and Ruth departed This Morning and he switched networks, an ITV representative remarked, ‘We would like to wish Eamonn all the best in his new job.
‘As a duo, Eamonn and Ruth have been part of the This Morning presenting team for the last 15 years and we thank Eamonn for all of his hard work and contribution to the show.’
Ruth has stayed with ITV and now hosts Loose Women.
She also returned in August 2022 to co-host a week of This Morning shows with Rylan Clark.