GB News host Patrick Christys has said he and his pregnant wife were ordered by police to leave their London home in the middle of the night after officers issued a formal threat-to-life notice linked to his reporting on people-smuggling gangs in northern France.
Christys, who presents the Tonight programme, has described how the Metropolitan Police contacted the couple on July 25, 2025. He set out the account publicly for the first time in an interview with The Mail on Sunday published on August 16, 2026.
He was broadcasting live when his wife, fellow GB News presenter Emily Carver, called during an advertising break to say officers were at their flat. On his return shortly after midnight, police read out an official notice stating that, as a result of his recent journalistic coverage of organised crime groups in northern France, members of those groups were seeking to cause him “significant harm”. Christys has said the couple were told the intelligence services believed their lives were at risk.
Officers advised the couple to pack a bag immediately, avoid using their own car in case it had been tampered with and travel by black cab to a safe location.
A panic alarm was fitted at the property on July 26, 2025, and the pair were allowed to return a few days later, though security measures have remained in place. Christys has said the family now has round-the-clock security.
Christys has said the official warning has never been withdrawn. He has added that he has not been told who was behind the threat or whether the danger has passed.
The threat followed an investigation in July 2025, when Christys found that people-smuggling networks operating across the Channel were straightforward to locate.
The groups advertised their services openly on TikTok and shifted discussions about crossing locations, times and prices to WhatsApp.
After alerting the authorities produced little apparent action, he and a camera crew travelled to Calais, northern France, arriving at 9am and confronting three suspected traffickers by midday. He has said he was threatened with death during those encounters.
Footage of the encounters was broadcast by GB News in July 2025. Christys has also claimed that one of the men he confronted later tracked him on a London street.
He has said that second encounter came outside the hospital where Carver had given birth to their son, George, and that he recognised the man by a distinctive ring. The man held his gaze before walking away, according to Christys, who has said he could not establish whether the approach was deliberate.
Christys has said contractors arrived weeks later to remove the panic alarm and that he was told it had already been disconnected for about 10 days because police did not have enough equipment.
Christys told The Mail on Sunday that the episode was “very scary” and that he remained angry at what he described as the failure of British authorities to disrupt the gangs more effectively.
“This is personal for me,” he said. “I want everyone to understand the reality of who we’re letting in to our country. These human traffickers wanted to kill me in my own home while my wife was eight months pregnant.”
“Who knows if they’d have tried to harm my wife and son in order to get to me? It makes me incredibly angry that we let illegals into the country – who we all pay for. Then we let those same people make millions of pounds trafficking yet more illegals to Britain.
“They feel so emboldened, they thought they could kill a TV journalist in his own home and get away with it.”
The Metropolitan Police has not publicly commented on the specific threat notice or on the removal of the alarm.
Home Office figures show about 41,000 people crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025, 13 per cent more than in 2024 and the second-highest annual total since records began in 2018, behind the 45,774 arrivals logged in 2022.
A House of Commons Library briefing has said British authorities have committed £662 million (€767 million) to France between 2026-27 and 2028-29 to strengthen operations against illegal migration in northern France.
Partner organisations to the Council of Europe Platform to promote the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists recorded 344 alerts across the continent in 2025, 29 per cent more than the 266 registered in 2024, with 90 concerning attacks on the physical safety of journalists.
❤️ Thanks for all the well wishes and thanks @GBNEWS for doing everything to help keep our family safe. It was very scary at the time. Wasn’t sure whether or not to share publicly but I think the public should know how dangerous these illegal migrant gangs are. https://t.co/sAsIxiZUwE
— Patrick Christys (@PatrickChristys) August 16, 2026
