Jewish group criticises GB News host over ‘dangerous conspiracy theory’

A leading Jewish group has criticised a prominent GB News presenter for spreading “a dangerous conspiracy theory” after she tweeted that the Covid virus appeared to have been bioengineered to be less dangerous to some Jewish people.

In a tweet sent on Tuesday afternoon, Beverley Turner supported the idea first popularised by the controversial Democratic presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy Jr that the coronavirus was engineered to target some ethnic groups and spare others.

In her message, which has since been deleted, Turner, who co-presents a regular morning show on GB News, appeared to argue that this bioengineering could be linked to Dr Anthony Fauci, who as the chief medical adviser to the US presidency during Covid was a common target for conspiracy theorists.

“Sars cov 2 virus causes less harm to certain ethnicities – east Asians, and Ashkenazi Jews (Fauci anyone?) than to European, S Asian & African … Just let that sink in,” Turner wrote.

About half of Jewish people around the world identify as Ashkenazi, descended from a diaspora population who settled in parts of Europe centuries ago.

Linking the emergence of Covid to laboratory research in Wuhan, China, Turner added: “This is looking increasingly like a bio weapon to destroy the west. Why is this not on the front pages of every paper?”

Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust (CST), which campaigns on antisemitic threats, said: “It’s both depressing and alarming how easily an antisemitic myth can spread from the cranky corners of the internet into mainstream politics and media on both sides of the Atlantic. Not only is this a dangerous conspiracy theory, it is grossly insulting to the many Jewish families that lost loved ones to Covid-19 during the pandemic.”

The Conservative MP Nicola Richards, who co-chairs the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism, said: “The answer to the question Bev poses in her tweet is that no self-respecting publisher or broadcaster would share this antisemitic conspiratorial fantasy, and neither should she.”

Turner is among a series of GB News presenters to have embraced conspiracy theories, many of them connected to Covid and some associated with antisemitic tropes.

In February, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism warned that some GB News segments and guests risked spreading ideas linked to antisemitism.

It followed an edition of the weekly show hosted by Neil Oliver, the broadcaster and historian. Oliver, who delivers trademark monologues to camera, used one episode to discuss what he called a “silent war” by generations of politicians to take “total control of the people” and impose a “one-world government”.

The idea seemingly echoes a noted conspiracy theory document called Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, purportedly a secret manual for world government found by chance in 1986. It has a long section with claims about the role of the Rothschild banking dynasty, a common antisemitic trope.

At the time, GB News said it “abhors racism and hate in all its forms and would never allow it on the channel”. The channel was contacted for comment about Turner’s tweet.