60,000 complain over Josh Howie's 'homophobic slur'

But comic insists GB News comment was a joke about paedophilia in churches

Comedian Josh Howie has attracted tens of thousands of complaints after making a joke on GB News that appeared to suggest the LGBT community included paedophiles.

More than 1,200 complaints have been lodged directly with broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, while an online petition run by the Good Law Project has attracted more than 60,000 more.

His comments came on the controversial channel’s newspaper review programme Headliners, which feature a panel of comedians on January 22 when discussing Mariann Budde, the episcopal bishop of Washington who urged Donald Trump to have mercy on Americans who felt scared of his actions, including immigrants and LGBT people.

On the show, Howie quoted a statement issued by the bishop's church, saying it supported ’the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons’. The comic then added: ‘That includes paedos’, stressing the last word.

Following the complaints the comedian issued a statement on air insisting his comment intended to suggest ‘going against child protection might be a bit much for a church. That was a joke about churches as much as anything else…’

He added the seven-second clip which has been circulated did not provide the full context but said he was ‘genuinely sorry’ if anyone took his words to link homosexuality and paedophilia’.

However The Good Law Project said that Howie did repeat the ‘dangerous homophobic slur’ and urge people to sign its petition by Monday, ahead of Ofcom’s deadline to receive complaints.

If the watchdog accepts all the signatories to the petition as individual complaints, it would make this the most complained-about item it has ever investigated – a dubious record of 58,000, currently held by Piers Morgan’s comments about Meghan Markle on Good Morning Britain and which were subsequently rejected.

Here is the Instagram post The Good Law Project s initially made pointing out Howie’s comment: