Dan Wootton speaks out as he’s accused of ‘smirking’ at Laurence Fox’s Ava Evans tirade

GB News host Dan Wootton has acknowledged that his reaction to Laurence Fox’s scathing comments about Ava Evans was “inappropriate”.

It comes after viewers of the exchange, in which former actor Laurence made a series of derogatory remarks about journalist Ava, hit out at Wootton for seemingly “smirking” in response to his misogynistic comments.

One social media user fumed: “@GBNEWS Your own host was smirking throughout it – sounds like it was acceptable to him. Ridiculous channel.”

Another added: “@GBNEWS Wootton was smirking and laughing along. Will you be calling him out too? Disgusting and reprehensible.”

Taking to Twitter (X) once again after issuing an apology to Joe’s Political Correspondent last night, Dan wrote: “I want to reiterate my regret over last night’s exchange with Laurence on GB News.

“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.”

Dan went on to claim his reaction to the leader of the Reclaim Party was due to his “shock and surprise” over Laurence’s remarks live on-air.

He added: “I reacted as I did out of shock and surprise in an off guard moment while working out how to respond as he continued to speak by searching for tweets @AvaSantina had sent earlier in the day while having them read out in my ear at the same time.

“However, I should have intervened immediately to challenge offensive and misogynistic remarks.

“I apologise unreservedly for what was a very unfortunate lapse in judgement on my part under the intense pressure of a bizarre exchange.

“I know I should have done better. I’m devastated that I let down the team and our supportive GBN family.

“We seek to tackle the issue and not the person, which I intend to stress again on air tonight.”

In the widely-criticised segment, Laurence called the journalist who works for online news site Joe a “little woman” and went on to say: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel.”

He continued: “We need powerful, strong amazing women who make great points for themselves.

“We don’t need these sort of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d want to s**g that?”

GB News has since apologised for Laurence’s remarks, which they have described as “totally unacceptable”.

They added in a tweet: “What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused.

“We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.”

Host Dan also said sorry to Ava, writing: “I think you’re brilliant… I apologise for what was said during the course of my show and should have done this immediately on air. This is not what our channel is about.”

Laurence has now been suspended by the broadcaster, as in a later statement issued on Wednesday morning, a GB News spokesperson said: “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.”

Fox also told his followers “I stand by every word of what I said” in a social media post on Wednesday morning.