ADVERTISERS have chosen to boycott the newly launched GB News Channel following pressure from an online backlash.

The news program, which launched on June 13, has seen a number of its advertisers withdraw from its channel, including the Open University, Ikea, the Dutch beer brand Grolsch, the Swedish cider maker Kopparberg and Octopus Energy. They have either suspended their adverts on the channel or withdrawn completely.

The boycott of GB News began following an online campaign by a Twitter account @StopFundingHate which encouraged the public to pressure sponsors to withdraw their support.

Barrow MP Simon Fell spoke of how limiting the number of voices in the media could only make us ‘poorer’.

He said: “A diverse and free media sits at the heart of our democracy.

"Companies are free to advertise wherever they want but I do worry about the impact of pressure groups trying to stifle voices that they simply don’t like through social media campaigns.

“We are all poorer without a plurality of voices."

Since its launch, the channel has received higher ratings than both the BBC and Sky News, gaining 336,000 viewers at the peak of its first show.

South Lakeland MP Tim Farron weighed in on the boycott and predicted the boycott would simply result in higher ratings for the new channel.

Tim said: “I’m against any kind of boycott like this unless it is in extreme circumstances and this isn’t.

“It seems to me that those seeking to boycott GB news are actually just gaining the new channel more attention which I’m sure they are delighted by.”

On June 17, chairman and presenter of GB News Andrew Neil responded to the boycott by listing the diverse topics of stories covered since the show's launch and said that there was ‘not an iota of hate in sight’.

He continued: "(Advertisers) bowed to pressure from a fringe group called Stop Funding Hate, a misnomer if ever there was one.

"It’s quite remarkable that serious, important executives in well-established companies can be so easily cowed.

"So far not a single example of hate has been given in evidence to justify the boycott of this channel.”