Dan Wootton, a GB News presenter, has been suspended by the broadcaster after the comments made on his show by the actor and Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox.
Fox was speaking on the channel’s Dan Wootton Tonight show when he called Ava Evans, the political correspondent for the news website Joe, a “little woman” and asked: “Who’d want to shag that?”
Wootton appeared to laugh at the comments when they were broadcast.
In a statement GB News said: “GB News has suspended Dan Wootton following comments made on his programme by Laurence Fox last night. This follows our decision earlier today to formally suspend Mr Fox. We are conducting a full investigation.”
Wootton had earlier apologised for his role in the exchange saying his reaction last night was “inappropriate”. “I was in no way amused by the comments. I reacted as I did out of shock and surprise in an off guard moment while working out how to respond,” he said. “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.”
GB News said it would formally apologise to Evans today, but just after 1pm she said: “I haven’t had an apology yet if anyone was wondering.”
Fox was speaking on the channel’s Dan Wootton Tonight show in response to comments made by Evans about men’s mental health during an appearance on the BBC’s Politics Live on Monday.
Fox said: “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 spoon-fed oppression day after day after day, starting with the lie of the gender wage gap.
“I’m going, like, if I met you in a bar and that was 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 this sort of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d want to shag that?”
Wootton laughed and said that he was going to add a “touch of balance” as Evans had replied earlier, “saying that she regretted her comments, but she didn’t apologise”. He added: “And she’s a very beautiful woman, Laurence. Very beautiful.”
In a statement this morning, the broadcaster 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.”
A source inside GB News said several female journalists at the channel were furious about what had happened and were calling on bosses to permanently ban Fox from appearing on air.
GB News is also under pressure to sanction Wootton, who was suspended from his role as a twice-weekly columnist at the MailOnline in August following allegations that he used a pseudonym to offer his colleagues money in return for sexual material but was allowed to remain in post at the broadcaster. Wootton has admitted to making “errors of judgment in the past”, but denied criminal wrongdoing.
The presenter said he “regretted” laughing during Fox’s interview. “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,” he said.
Fox retaliated by tweeting what appeared to be a screenshot of a conversation between the two men, following last night’s broadcast.
“Making you giggle is my weekly joy,” Fox said. The second user responded with laughing emojis and added: “You can imagine them freaking out in the gallery!!!!!”
“So much fun,” Fox replied.
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Fox said he stood by “every word” of his tirade. “If you are expecting a grovelling apology, I suggest you don’t hold your breath. I won’t ever apologise to the mob,” he tweeted.
He also claimed that GB News had conducted a pre-interview and “knew exactly what I intended to say”.
“A phone call might have been polite,” he said following news of his suspension.
Wooton also apologised to Evans on X/Twitter. He wrote: “Dear @AvaSantina I think you’re brilliant. Earlier tonight I was attempting to find your tweets to read back from my iPad and couldn’t locate them.
“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.”
After her appearance on the BBC show, Evans had posted on Twitter/X saying that she had been “a little rash” in her comments opposing a minister for men and regretted them, adding: “I am actually very interested in a brief for a minister on young men’s mental health.”
She shared a clip of the interview, captioning it: “Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me?” She added: “I feel physically sick.”
Fox’s comments received criticism from across the political divide. The Labour MP Stella Creasy said to Evans: “This clearly breaches @Ofcom guidelines on your right to privacy and unfair treatment. You shouldn’t have to put up with this and it’s their job to make sure GB News are held accountable for it. If they don’t act let us know and we will follow up.”
Piers Morgan also waded in, hailing Evans as a “very talented journalist and delightful person” while calling Fox “a disgusting piece of misogynist trash”.
Ofcom found earlier this month that an episode of the GB News show Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil breached impartiality rules. Six further investigations into the channel’s compliance with the regulator’s impartiality rules are ongoing, including one into Fox’s own show.
An Ofcom spokesman confirmed the body had received a number of complaints about Fox’s comments and was assessing them against its rules.
