Kay Burley, a presenter on Sky News, has been suspended from going on-air at the network for six months after flouting England’s Covid-19 guidelines during her 60th birthday party at a lavish London club on Saturday night.
The journalist has “agreed to be off air” for six months, Sky News said on Thursday, while two of her colleagues, political editor Beth Rigby and correspondent Inzamam Rashid, will step down for three months.
A spokesperson for the Comcast-owned network said that those involved “regret the incident and have apologised,” adding that the company takes such breaches “very seriously.”
It comes after the trio were snapped outside Soho’s glitzy Century Club on Saturday, as part of a group of 10 revellers, with Burley later admitting that she had broken the coronavirus restrictions by entering a restaurant to use the bathroom.
The group also came in for criticism for apparently trying to circumvent the ‘rule of six’ Covid regulations by spanning across two separate tables for the celebrations.
Burley issued a fresh apology on Thursday, in which she admitted that she was “wrong” about her actions being “Covid-compliant,” saying that she had made a “big mistake.”
She added: “Some dear friends and colleagues – some of the most talented and committed professionals in our business – have been pulled into this episode and I regret this enormously.”
Hello everyone,News about me. Thanks for all your kind wishes. pic.twitter.com/6LDNVB9Cns
The 60-year-old anchorwoman was one of the founding presenters of Sky News when it was launched by Rupert Murdoch 32 years ago, with the network now a major part of the UK’s mainstream media landscape.
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