GB News host Nigel Farage is officially the nation’s favourite current affairs host after winning News Presenter of the Year at the Television & Radio Industries Club today.

GB News’ Breakfast programme also won the award for Multi-Channel News Programme against Good Morning Britain, ITV Evening News, Channel 4 News and TalkTV’s Breakfast.

Nigel took the award in a public vote ahead of category finalists Piers Morgan, Susanna Reid, and his fellow GB News colleagues Eamonn Holmes and Stephen Dixon.

For the first time this year, winners in 17 categories were chosen entirely by the public. Past awards have been voted on a 60:40 split between the industry and audiences.

“The approval of your audience is the ultimate accolade,” said Nigel. “GB News set out to be the People’s Channel and I’m incredibly proud of that. The establishment media doesn’t always like it – we’re not for them – but this award shows that the people do.”

He added: “In politics, the art of constructive debate is being lost, but it matters. To me, good current affairs presenting is about bringing together people with very different opinions, and then having a warm, grown-up conversation with them.”

Stephen Dixon, who presents GB News Weekend Breakfast, said the programme’s win was an unexpected delight.

“Going up against established media programmes and winning is just remarkable for a show that’s still only 18 months old,” he said. “It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come and how much our audience loves what we do.”

The TRIC awards were more intensely contested than ever this year with more than 130,000 people voting, compared to 66,000 last year. More than 1.3m votes were cast.

The doubling of votes put pressure on the awards website. “It took patience and persistence to vote, so I really thank everyone for that,” Nigel said.

One of the first to congratulate him was former US President Donald Trump, who Nigel has interviewed twice for the channel, who said: “He truly is incredible with what he does and says. Everybody listens—the respect is long and deep.”

GB News Chief Executive Officer Angelos Frangopoulos said: “It’s a testament to the talent of our teams that no less than three of the five finalists in the News Presenter category were from GB News. Once again, this shows that whatever our rivals think, audiences love us.”

The TRIC awards were presented in a ceremony for more than a thousand industry guests at London’s Grosvenor House today.