Katie Hopkins joins LBC Radio line-up

Katie Hopkins has secured a weekly slot on LBC Radio as part of the station’s new 2016 spring schedule.

The controversial columnist, who last year compared migrants to “cockroaches” in a Sun article, will host her own programme every Sunday morning between 10am and 12 noon.

Hopkins has guest-presented the show in the past; however, LBC managing editor James Rea said the permanent fixture will bring a “unique style of straight-talking” to LBC’s weekend schedule.

An online petition calling on the Sun to sack Hopkins after she said gunships should be used to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean garnered more than 200,000 signatures in April 2015, while regulator Ipso received over 100 complaints.

Hopkins resigned from the redtop in September, before becoming a regular columnist for rival Mail Online, where recent articles have included: ‘To hell with #solidarity. If Europe is willing to accept that Muslim terror is simply the new normal we can’t afford to stay part of it‘ and ‘Put away the rope, Adam Johnson broke the law – with a girl who knew EXACTLY what she was doing – but he’s not a paedophile and he doesn’t deserve prison and a Twitter lynching‘.

LBC’s UK network currently reaches almost 1.5 million people each week, with the average listener tuning in for a little under 10 hours.

Elsewhere, Andrew Castle returns to host LBC’s weekend breakfast show on Saturday and Sunday between 7am and 10am, while Tom Swarbrick becomes the new presenter of LBC’s weekend afternoons from 12 noon to 3pm.