Laurence Fox has been formally suspended by GB News and taken off air immediately following comments he made on GB News about a female journalist which have been described as “unacceptable, unjustifiable and indefensible”.
Fox made a series of remarks about Ava Evans, the political correspondent for online news site Joe, including describing her as a “little woman” during an episode of Dan Wootton Tonight on Tuesday.
In the segment Fox 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.”
“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 shag that?”
As both Fox and Wootton laughed, Fox added, “Sorry, it’s true though.”
Ms Evans 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 ?” which has been viewed more than 2.1 million times.
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In a follow up tweet she added that the footage made her feel “physically sick”.
The discussion came after Ms Evans appeared on BBC’s Politics Live on Monday.
In a statement posted to X, GB News said: “Comments made tonight on GB News by Laurence Fox were totally unacceptable.
“What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused.
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“We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.”
In a message to Ms Evans on X, host Dan Wootton said: “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.”
Fox and Ofcom have been approached for comment.
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