Andrew Neil poised to move to Channel 4 with weekly politics show

Veteran TV presenter and former newspaper editor Andrew Neil is poised to move to Channel 4 where he will host a weekly politics show set to be launched later this year.

Neil’s move is part of a wider shake up of Channel 4, with restaurateur and chef Jamie Oliver ending his exclusive contract there after 20 years.

Paisley-born Neil, 72, walked out of his previous job at GB News last summer after two weeks in which he helped to launch the channel he now calls “British Fox News”.

In an interview he gave last November, Neil said that GB News was the “single biggest mistake” of his 50-year career.

“I put my face on the tin and yet I quickly discovered that I really had no say over what was going into that tin,” he said.

GB News has moved on from Neil, signing up Eamonn Holmes as a breakfast presenter and landing an interview with Donald Trump.

Formidable and forensic: Andrew Neil’s lifelong, relentless pursuit of politicians

He is in advanced talks to host a Sunday evening show, positioning it away from the BBC and Sky News’s morning politics programmes. He is expected to reflect on the day’s news, interview heavyweight guests and look ahead to the coming week.

Oliver, 46, has told the broadcaster that he will not renew his agreement and is believed to be in talks with streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.

The move ends a major partnership, with Oliver making more than 40 series and one-offs for the channel over two decades.

Oliver’s new Channel 4 series, The Great Cookbook Challenge, begins on Monday. He is to search for a cook able to write a bestselling book of recipes for Penguin Random House.

Channel 4 is still awaiting a decision from Culture Minister Nadine Dorries over whether it will be privatised. Ministers are wading through 60,000 submissions to a consultation on its future, with the industry overwhelmingly opposed to plans for a sale.