GB News Suspends Presenters After ‘Absolutely Sickening’ Rant Against Female Journalist

The right-leaning UK news channel GB News has apologised and launched an investigation after airing a series of derogatory comments by guest Laurence Fox about a female political journalist.

Fox, a former actor and singer turned hard-right politician, made the comments during an interview with fellow GB News host Dan Wootton on Tuesday night in a segment about JOE political correspondent Ava Evans.

“Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel,” Fox said, while Wootton smiled and nodded along.

Fox, who referred to Evans as “that little woman,” continued to say: “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?”

“Sorry, it’s true though,” said Fox, as Wootton laughed.

Sharing the exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter, Evans said she “felt physically sick.”

On Wednesday, GB News said Fox had been suspended from the channel, and hours later said Wootton had been suspended too. In a rambling messaged, Fox doubled down on his remarks, saying “I am totally within my rights to say that I wouldn’t want to shag a hyper offended 4th wave feminist and not apologise.”

The GB News segment was in response to an appearance by Evans earlier this week on the BBC’s Politics Live show and a discussion about men’s mental health. Evans said she “was a little rash on my anti-minister for men comments which I do regret and am actually very interested in a brief for a minister on young men’s mental health.” Wootton read this tweet out at the end of his exchange with Fox, before both men described Evans as “beautiful.”

The GB News clip was met with outrage and disgust online. Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, said this “smirking, sniggering misogyny needs to be called out. British television should never subject women to this sort of abuse.”

Labour’s shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire said “woman hating on air has hit a new low.”

Conservative peer Daniel Finkelstein said: “It is not just the dreadful behaviour of Laurence Fox during this interview that they need to ‘investigate’ but also that of Dan Wooton.”

In response, GB News said that the comments made by 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,” a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, said. “We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.”

Wootton apologised for his role in the exchange and insisted he was not amused by the comments, although he was visibly smiling and laughing during the interview segment.

Media regulator Ofcom confirmed it had received a “number of complaints” about the exchange.

“We can confirm we've received a number of complaints about comments made by Laurence Fox on GB News last night,” a statement said. “We are assessing these complaints against our broadcast rules and will publish the outcome as quickly as possible.”

Earlier this month Ofcom said GB News had breached impartiality rules by broadcasting an interview with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt by two Conservative MPs, Philip Davies and Esther McVey.