Laurence Fox suspended from GB News over vile rant about journalist Ava Evans

GB News is continuing its investigation into Laurence Fox (Picture: GB News)

GB News has ‘formally suspended’ Laurence Fox after he made ‘totally unacceptable’ comments about a female journalist on Dan Wooton’s show.

On Dan Wootton’s show on Tuesday evening, Fox made a series of remarks about Ava Evans, known as Ava Santina on X, formerly Twitter, including asking ‘Who would want to shag that?’.

The broadcaster later launched an investigation, branding Fox’s comments ‘totally unacceptable’ and adding: ‘What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused.’

In their latest statement, on Wednesday morning, GB News announced it had taken further measures against Fox and suspended the former actor with immediate effect while their probe continues.

The statement, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, reads: ‘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.

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‘We will be apologising formally to Ms Evans today.’

Evans, a political correspondent at Joe, shared a clip of the comments on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: ‘Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me?’

In a follow-up tweet to her nearly 100,000 followers she added that the footage made her feel ‘physically sick.’

Fox had described her as ‘little woman’ and said only ‘incels’ would be attracted her on GB News, after she spoke about male mental health on  BBC’s Politics Live on Monday.

Evans said she felt ‘physically sick’ by Fox’s comments (Picture: TalkTV) Fox said in a statement he ‘stands by every word’ of his vile rant (Picture: GBNews)

In response to Fox’s ugly comments, Wootton, laughing, said: ‘Well, look, she, I’m just going to provide a touch of balance from her because she did actually respond to this earlier today, saying that she regretted her comments but she didn’t apologise.’

He added: ‘And she’s a very beautiful woman, Laurence, very beautiful woman.’

Wootton later apologised for his reaction to the remarks, while Fox doubled down and said he ‘stands by every word.’

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, ever, who wasn’t an Incel?

‘That little woman has been fed, spoon-fed oppression day after day after day… starting with the lie of the gender wage gap, and she’s sat there and I’m going, if I met you in a bar and that was like sentence three, chances of me just walking away are just huge.

‘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 would want to shag that?’

Wootton apologised for his reaction to the remarks(Picture: GB News)

Ofcom confirmed to PA News Agency they had received a ‘number of complaints’ about Fox’s comments on GB News.

‘We are assessing these complaints against our broadcast rules and will publish the outcome as quickly as possible,’ the media watchdog added.

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Fox, who was previously married to actress Billie Piper, founded the Reclaim Party in October 2020 after an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time earlier that year, which the actor said resulted in him being ‘cancelled from a 21-year acting career.’

According to its website, the party exists to challenge ‘woke orthodoxy’ and promote ‘freedom of speech’, which it views as being ‘under grave peril.’

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