Presenter apologises to subtitle viewers who thought finance commentator said the word ‘bullocks’

Left-wing broadcaster Channel 4 has come under fire on the government of Liz Truss after top journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy defended the use of the word ‘b******s’ when describing Jacob Rees-Mogg’s claims that the mini-Budget fiasco was not primarily responsible for fueling the market collapse.

The Commerce Secretary yesterday insisted that the ongoing economic turmoil had “much more to do” with the Bank of England’s failure to raise interest rates in line with the US than with the actions of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Speaking to Channel 4 News last night, Financial Times journalist Gillian Tett described Mr Rees-Mogg’s claims as ‘pretty much b******s’, adding: ‘I think for most of it really was the budget and the way it was delivered…that triggered the onset of the crisis’.

Mr Guru-Murthy initially apologized for using the bad language, before appearing to backtrack by insisting the word was defensible under Ofcom rules. He told viewers that the media regulator is ‘describing it’ [b******s] as a medium of language’, adding that it is ‘potentially unacceptable, less problematic when used to mean ‘nonsense’.

Channel 4, launched by Margaret Thatcher in 1982 to provide a fourth non-profit television service for Britain alongside BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, has been repeatedly attacked by Conservatives who complain that some of its output is biased against the Tories.

The ‘awake’ announcer replaced former Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a block of ice during a climate change debate after turning down an invitation, while veteran news anchor Jon Snow was accused of chanting ‘f**k the Tories’ at the Glastonbury festival in 2017.

One Tory said that despite being home to many beloved shows, including The Great British Bake Off, Gogglebox and SAS: Who Dares Wins, it “sealed its own fate” with years of “one-sided” left-wing news shows.

Miss Truss’s government has plans to sell Channel 4 funded from the outset through advertising and sponsorship deals, with a turnover of around £1 billion.

Earlier, the senior Conservative presenter of Today’s program Mishal Husain accused of failing to meet the BBC’s impartiality standards, after suggesting the mini-budget had sparked market turmoil.

Mr Rees-Mogg tried to argue that the Bank of England’s decisions on interest rates had caused the turbulence, rather than Mr Kwarteng’s plans to borrow more to fund tax cuts.

Ms Husain said there is a ‘very serious economic and investor confidence picture fueled by the mini-budget’ when she questioned the minister on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Mr Rees-Mogg said to her, “You are suggesting that something is causal, which is speculation.

What has caused the effect in pension funds, because of some fairly risky but low-probability investment strategies, isn’t necessarily the mini-budget — it could just as well be the fact that the Bank of England didn’t raise interest rates as much as the Federal Reserve the day before. Reserve did.

“And I think drawing conclusions about causality doesn’t meet the BBC’s requirement of impartiality, it’s a commentary rather than a factual question.”

He added, “I’m saying it’s mainly caused by interest rate differentials rather than the tax announcement.”

Financial experts have flatly rejected the Business Secretary’s analysis that interest rates were responsible for the market turmoil.

Sanjay Raja, Deutsche Bank’s British chief economist, told the House of Commons Treasury Committee that on September 23, the mini-budget was the “straw that broke the camel.”

Mr Raja argued there is “definitely a global component” to the chaos, but was adamant that there is also an “idiosyncratic, UK-specific component”.

He said the ‘trade shock’ from Brexit is a factor, adding: “If you throw in the September 23 event, you have a financial watchdog on the sidelines, you don’t have a medium-term fiscal plan.” , one of the biggest unfunded tax cuts we’ve seen since the early 1970s, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.’

Torsten Bell, CEO of the Resolution Foundation, was clear that the massive austerity package should not have happened during the current frenetic financial environment.

“If you spend the summer telling people you’re going to give up fiscal orthodoxy, if you announce a package that dumps fiscal orthodoxy, and if you say you’re going through with it on Sunday, I don’t think this is it.” should come as a surprise to all of us that you end up here,” he said.

Nigel Peaple, director of policy and advocacy at the Association for Pensions and Lifelong Savings, said: “The origin of these problems seems to be mainly due to the mini-budget, because of the market’s response to that mini-budget, because of uncertainty about the plans of the government.’

Journalist Alan White shared the clip Twitterwhere it has now been viewed some 2.5 million times and garnered more than 63,600 likes.

“Incredible scenes on channel 4. Worth staying the last five seconds of this,” he wrote in the caption.

Commentators rushed to give their opinions on Gillian’s overview and laughed at the interaction.

“A great moment,” one user wrote. “Krishnan shows brilliant comedic timing. Nice to have a laugh for a change…’

“Those last five seconds let me down,” added another.

A third wrote: ‘Wow. Absolute gold. Especially for those who rely on subtitles, it seems.’