LBC’s James O’Brien: If the cards had fallen differently, I’d be desperate for a job at the Mail “Public school posh boy fuck wit,” ponders James O’Brien, the LBC presenter famed for his on-air “takedowns” of the ill-informed […]

“Public school posh boy fuck wit,” ponders James O’Brien, the LBC presenter famed for his on-air “takedowns” of the ill-informed and ignorant, at the Twitter insult lobbed his way by the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries. “I did go to public school but the rest is up for debate.”

It’s a debate that lights up the airwaves every weekday morning on the speech station where O’Brien, to the surprise of no-one more than himself, has been anointed the “liberal conscience of Britain”, after turning the notion of the radio shock-jock on its head.

Instead of whipping up prejudice against “immigrants”, O’Brien takes apart the likes of Nigel Farage, famously pulled out of the studio by a media minder, through persistent questioning and his demand for unfashionable “facts” to justify the inflammatory statements of his guests.

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His passionate tirades – or “rants” to his critics – taking on Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, Brexiteers or the council bureaucrats who left traumatised Grenfell Tower survivors to fend for themselves – have become viral hits on social media. Nearly two million watched his emotional video the day after the Manchester bombing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t09FKy2-Xg

“The anger takes me by surprise sometimes. You’d be mad not to be furious after the litany of Grenfell mistakes. It’s usually shock mixed with incredulity and the words just come out, like dancing,” admitted O’Brien, 45, who also lends his skills to Newsnight’s presenting team.

‘A responsibility to speak up for people’

“A relative of one of the Grenfell victims told me ‘someone’s got to fight for the little people.’ You have a responsibility to keep the light on these stories and speak up for people that don’t have a position of privilege. Hopefully that’s becoming a bit more fashionable in recent years.”

It might be the Brexit backlash or an echo of the Corbyn surge but O’Brien’s audience is soaring, with 814,000 people tuning in every week. The number of 15-34 year olds, hooked by the viral clips, has risen by 52%, giving the BBC pause for thought (“We’ve caught Radio 4 in some age groups.”)

A former Daily Express showbusiness editor who discovered his calling as a call-in host, O’Brien has analysed his craft. “It’s really easy to get the phones ringing off the hook by saying ‘call in and tell me what you think.’ I say ‘tell me why you think it.’”

His most memorable exchanges include the Brexit supporter who praised the day Britain could finally take control of its own laws – but when asked to name one law imposed by Brussels admitted he had no idea. “It’s usually digested lines about immigration from the Daily Mail about queues at the doctor’s surgery. Have they been turned away? ‘No, but I read about people who have.’”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wdRDAe__yI

Conflict with Daily Mail

Inevitably, O’Brien’s outspoken liberal views and high profile have brought him into conflict with the Daily Mail, a paper for which he used to write film and video game reviews. “I tell my friends there, ‘Just because I think your boss has done more harm to this country than anyone since the Luftwaffe, I don’t hold them personally responsible.’ But if the cards had fallen differently I’d be desperate for a job at the Mail, there’s still brilliant writers there.”

O’Brien now finds that he and Farage are LBC colleagues – but relations are not warm. “It’s not that hard to find the dark heart – or what passes for a heart – beneath that persona. “There’s no tensions but we don’t see each other at the studio.” As for Katie Hopkins, axed by LBC after one tweet too far, O’Brien wishes her “good luck”.

LBC has become the home of the politician’s “brain fade” in recent months so it’s little surprise some are reluctant to accept O’Brien’s invitation for a “thoughtful, intelligent debate.” He said: “People are told they are not allowed to come on. We had Heidi Allen (independent minded Conservative MP) booked just before the election and when Central Office found out they pulled her immediately.” Jeremy Corbyn’s media minders have turned down approaches, with the presenter keen to challenge him on his Brexit policy.

Bonding with Lily Allen

O’Brien has formed a bond though with Lily Allen, whom he defended after her visit to the Calais jungle. “She’s emblematic of the zeitgeist. She is a single mother who has been diagnosed with PTSD after an absolutely horrific miscarriage and yet elderly men like Paul Dacre see her as a suitable recipient for the most vituperative bile, for the audacity of being a successful women standing up in public and asking whether things have to be like this.”

“She lets her heart rule her head sometimes but that speaks of her passion. Of all the people in the public eye who routinely take a kicking from the Dacres and Littlejohns of this world, to me that speaks of what lurks beneath these allegedly knockabout headlines, and they are pretty ancient prejudices.”

It’s a classic O’Brien rant, one which will no doubt further infuriate his critics and the 1,800 Twitter abusers he has currently blocked. “Plenty of people hate the monologues but as long as they keep listening, I’m winning,” he said.

Their number include Dorries, whose bon mot typically backfired. “I did go to Ampleforth College (fee-paying boarding school). Then I found out where she sent her daughters – to Ampleforth. This is an elected Parliamentarian accusing me of being somehow deserving of contempt for attending the same school she sent her daughters to,” said the broadcaster, incredulous once again at the idiocies of a world he has three hours each day to put to rights.

James O’Brien broadcasts live every weekday from 10am to 1pm on LBC, available across the UK on digital radio, at LBC.co.uk, on the LBC app and in London on 97.3 FM.