GB News has asked a High Court judge to temporarily block Ofcom from sanctioning it for what the regulator says would be the channel’s 12th breach of its code in less than two years.

The channel is seeking to challenge Ofcom’s provisional decision that a Q&A with then-prime minister Rishi Sunak, which aired on February 12, was a “serious” breach of its rules, and that attempts to adhere to them were “wholly insufficient”.

In a hearing on Thursday, lawyers for the broadcaster said that the regulator had acted unlawfully by finding that the breach was “serious and repeated”, and asked a judge to pause Ofcom’s “sanctions process”, pending it getting the green light to challenge the watchdog’s decision.