Former Sky News presenter Kay Burley has shared a fiery exchange with GB News presenter Ben Leo after he criticised her social media posts on small boats immigration.
Burley, 65, who retired from Sky News in 2025 after 36 years, uses her X page to react to the day's biggest news stories. On Monday, she commented on small boats coming to England from across the Channel, responding to news that people smugglers had crammed more than 200 people onto a boat from France to the UK.
Burley's Comment and Leo's Criticism
In a post on the platform, Reform UK's home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf wrote: “That’s not a ‘small boat’. It’s an invasion.” In response, Burley commented: “I’ve seen longer queues in the ‘five items or fewer’ [aisle]. Stop it, just stop it!”
The comment caught the eye of GB News' Ben Leo, who claimed that Burley's comment reflected a desire to ignore the small boats by the mainstream media that GB News was responding to. “Just stop it guys. Stop noticing! Look away. Stop overreacting,” he wrote on X. “Is it any wonder the country’s in the state it’s in when the media was led by this kind of mindset. Not anymore. Thank goodness for GB News.”
Burley's Response
In response, Burley shot back: “I had to look you up, Ben. Bless your cotton socks,” to which Leo replied: “Don’t worry, I don’t seek notoriety. I’m just satisfied nobody listens to you anymore.”
Set up in 2020, news channel GB News hosts programmes from right-wing politicians and commentators such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
