PAUL Marshall, one of the co-owners of GB News, hit the headlines on Friday morning amid claims he had shared and liked multiple far-right conspiracy theory posts.
One of the most influential media moguls in the country, Marshall was an early investor in GB News and is a reported frontrunner to buy both The Spectator and Telegraph.
He owns a significant stake in a wide variety of businesses and was previously named on The New Statesman’s “right power list”.
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Here’s all you need to know.
Who is Paul Marshall?
Born in London and a graduate of Oxford, Marshall started his journey in finance with the BlackRock investment fund before going on to co-found Marshall Wace – the fund he still chairs with business partner Ian Wace.
The fund is estimated to manage around $60 billion (£47.2bn) worth of assets and The Sunday Times Rich List places Marshall's net worth at around £680 million.
According to a profile in The Guardian, Marshall worked as a backroom adviser to the LibDems and stood unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat in 1987.
He also funded the political website UnHerd in 2017, and was an early investor in GB News, of which he currently holds around a 45 per cent stake.
According to its website, UnHerd has two key aims: “To push back against the herd mentality with new and bold thinking, and to provide a platform for otherwise unheard ideas, people and places.”
Links to Tories
Marshall donated around £200,000 to the LibDems between 2002 and 2015, although later quit the party over its support of continuing EU membership.
He then backed the Brexit campaign during the 2016 referendum and has stood by his support for it - even though he believes it has been poorly executed.
The media mogul was also named in seventeenth place on The New Stateman’s 50 most influential people shaping Britain’s Conservative politics.
The same list included the likes of Nigel Farage (below), Suella Braverman, and former prime minister Boris Johnson.
According to that profile, Marshall has become “increasingly involved in Conservative politics”.
“He likes Michael Gove, free schools, Jordan Peterson, and evangelical Christianity,” The New Statesman said.
Why has Marshall hit the headlines?
An investigation carried out by the News Agents with anti-extremist organisation Hope Not Hate accused Marshall of liking several extremist tweets.
After being approached for comment, the organisation said almost 300 likes were removed from the account and a representative for Marshall issued the following statement: “Paul Marshall’s account is private but is nonetheless followed by 5000 people including many journalists.
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“He posts on a wide variety of subjects and those cited represent a small and unrepresentative sample of over 5000 posts. This sample does not represent his views.
“As most Twitter/X users know, it can be a fountain of ideas, but some of it is of uncertain quality and all his posts have now been deleted to avoid any further misunderstanding.”
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