GB News suspends Laurence Fox over “unacceptable” comments about female journalist

27 September, 2023

Laurence Fox

Laurence Fox has been suspended from GB News after making “totally unacceptable” remarks about a journalist live on air.

On Tuesday’s episode of Dan Wootton Tonight, Fox made a series of comments about Joe’s political correspondent Ava Evans (also known as Ava Santina), where he said: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever.”

GB News issued a statement today (September 27) confirming it had launched an investigation into the incident. “GB News has formally suspended Laurence Fox while we continue our investigation into comments he made on the channel last night.

“Mr Fox’s suspension is effective immediately and he has been taken off air. We will be apologising formally to Ms Evans today.”

Evans shared the clip of the segment online on X (fka Twitter), with the caption: “Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me. I feel physically sick.”

Shortly after the clip aired, the channel released a statement describing Fox’s comments as “totally unacceptable”.

“What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused,” GB News said. “We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.”

Wootton, who was seen laughing at the comments on air, also apologised and described his reaction as a “lapse in judgement”.

“Having looked at the footage, I can see how inappropriate my reaction to his totally unacceptable remarks appears to be and want to be clear that I was in no way amused by the comments,” Wootton wrote on X.

He added: “I should have intervened immediately to challenge offensive and misogynistic remarks,” Wootton wrote on X. “I apologise unreservedly for what was a very unfortunate lapse in judgement on my part under the intense pressure of a bizarre exchange.”

Fox’x remarks came after Evans made an appearance on Politics Live on Monday (September 25), where she discussed the call from a Conservative MP to appoint a dedicated minister for men.

“I think that it feeds into the culture war a little bit, this minister for men argument,” Evans said on the show. “In my mind, I think there should be a minister for mental health and it should be all-encompassing.”

She added: “I think a lot of ministers bandy this about to sort of, I’m sorry, to make an enemy out of women.”

After the debate aired, Evans later described her comments as “a little rash” in a post on X, adding that she was “actually very interested in a brief for a minister on young men’s mental health”.

In response to Evans’ comments on GB News, Fox said: “We’re past the watershed so I can say this. Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman, ever. Who wasn’t an incel.”

“That little woman has been fed, spoon-fed oppression day after day… and she’s sat there and I’m going like, if I met you in a bar and that was like sentence three, [the] chances of me just walking away are just huge.”

“We need powerful strong, amazing women who make great points for themselves,” Fox said, adding: “Who’d want to shag that?”

After the segment aired on GB News, Fox said he stood by “every word” of his comments. “If you are expecting a grovelling apology, I suggest you don’t hold your breath,” he wrote on X. “I won’t ever apologise to the mob.”

Ofcom said it had “received a number of complaints” about Fox’s comments on the channel and is “assessing these complaints against our broadcast rules”.

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