A GB News presenter has eaten his hat after wrongly predicting the Tories would lose all three by-elections on Thursday.
Tom Harwood promised after the polls had closed he would “eat an item of clothing” if the Tories held a single seat up for grabs in the trio of elections.
The Conservatives lost Selby and Ainsty to Labour and Somerton and Frome to the LibDems – but held on to Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Appearing on GB News’ midmorning show, Harwood ate a paper “dunce’s hat” he was wearing.
Before taking the hat off and tearing it into chunks, Harwood said: “I’m a man of my word.”
‘I’m a man of my word!’ GB News’ @tomhfh eats more than just his words after promising to eat an item of clothing on air if the Conservatives held a single seat in today’s by-election results. 📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604 🖥 GB News on YouTube https://t.co/Wa58gYHxmd pic.twitter.com/DMXkqtZLPF
— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 21, 2023
He told co-host Emily Carver he had spoken with Tories who claimed their vote was holding up – which he dismissed as “the worst expectations management in the world”.
As Harwood ate his hat, Carver said: “Now this is what you should not do as a political reporter, you should not say such things when you don’t know what the outcome could be.
“We all pontificate, we all suggest what might happen, but I prefer to keep quiet until we have those results, because this is what you end up doing, isn’t it? Eating a hat.”
It is the latest odd food outing for a GB News presenter after Lee Anderson – the deputy chair of the Conservative Party – tried to make a guest on his show eat cat food earlier this month.
