GB News has won its judicial review of decisions made by TV watchdog Ofcom, that two shows hosted by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg breached the broadcasting code.

The High Court judgment by Mrs Justice Collins Rice concluded that Ofcom’s rulings were unlawful. It is the first time the watchdog has lost such a case.

The judgement said Ofcom’s initial rulings – that the 9 May and 13 June 2023 broadcasts were in breach of its codes on “due impartiality and due accuracy in news” – were unlawful.

GB News CEO Angelos Frangopoulos said the decision “vindicates GB News’ position as the fearless defender of free speech in the United Kingdom”, while Ofcom said it “accepted the court’s guidance”.

Mr Frangopoulos added: “I call on the government and Parliament to consider the seriousness of this fundamental failure by Ofcom.”

The judge’s ruling stated: “I am minded to quash the two decisions in this case, and remit them to be reconsidered by Ofcom, subject to whatever further procedure may be fairly indicated.”

The court found that Ofcom had misapplied Rule 5.3 of the code, saying the provision only applies to “news programmes” and not to current affairs shows, such as the one Sir Jacob hosts.

The decisions had been made as part of five GB News rulings by Ofcom in March last year, including three about shows hosted by Esther McVey and Philip Davies.

Ofcom’s rulings had said the State of the Nation shows hosted by Sir Jacob broke rules stating politicians should not usually front news coverage.

The Ofcom code says a politician can’t be a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in a news programme “unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified”. They can, however, front current affairs shows.

At the time, Sir Jacob was the Conservative MP for North East Somerset.

During the programmes, the “host politicians acted as newsreaders, news interviewers or news reporters in sequences which clearly constituted news – including reporting breaking news events – without exceptional justification”, according to Ofcom investigations last year.

The regulator concluded at the time: “News was, therefore, not presented with due impartiality.”

But GB News responded to the rulings, saying: “These decisions go against established precedent and raises serious questions about Ofcom’s oversight over its own regulations.”

Ofcom said on Friday: “We accept the court’s guidance on this important aspect of due impartiality in broadcast news and the clarity set out in its judgment.

“We will now review and consult on proposed changes to the broadcasting code to restrict politicians from presenting news in any type of programme to ensure this is clear for all broadcasters.”

GB News said after the court quashed the decisions that the court had ordered Ofcom to pay its legal costs incurred in the proceedings.