The right-leaning British News channel GB News has suspended two of its male presenters after one of them made lewd, misogynistic comments about a female journalist.
On Tuesday night, Laurence Fox — a ”darling of rightwing culture warriors” went on the Dan Wootton Tonight show to criticise comments made a day earlier by political journalist Ava Evans, who responded to a call made by a Conservative MP for a dedicated minister for men as “feed[ing] into the culture war a little bit.”
Evans was speaking on an episode of BBC’s Politics Live when her co-guest comedian and commentator Geoff Norcott mentioned the concerning rates of suicide for men under fifty – noting how it remains the biggest cause of death in the UK for men under that age.
“I think that it feeds into the culture war a little bit, this minister for men argument,” Evans said.
“[Mental illness] is a crisis that’s endemic throughout the country, not specific to men. And I think a lot of ministers bandy this about to – I’m sorry – make an enemy out of women.”
Evans took to X to explain that the comments had been “a little rash” and that she was “actually very interested in a brief for a minister on young men’s mental health”.
On Tuesday night, a segment on Dan Wootton’s show featured Laurence Fox responding to Evan’s comments by adjudicating her sexual currency, saying: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel.”
The banner on the screen during their discussion displayed the text: “Hard-left commentator slammed for shrugging off male suicide crisis.”
Describing Evans as a “little woman,” Fox went on 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?”
Wootton is seen smiling, before adding his own response: “And she’s a very beautiful woman, Laurence, very beautiful woman.”
Evans, who is the political correspondent for online news platform PoliticsJOE, posted the clip of the segment on X captioned: “Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me ?”
“I feel physically sick.”
On Wednesday, GB News issued a statement, saying it 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.”
Speaking to the BBC Newscast podcast, Evans said she had received an apology from the news channel.
“It was an email from the editor – a very gracious email – basically telling me that what Fox said was not representative of the rest of the GB News outfit,” she said.
“That’s actually probably the best apology I could have gotten. Honestly, not to cast doubt on our media landscape, but I didn’t actually think anything was going to happen.
“I don’t want to say I’m pleased by it. I just think that’s probably the best outcome I could have hoped for.”
Before she received that official apology from GB News, she wrote on X:
“Really, really grateful to every person who reached out to me. From MPs, to journalists, to friends and people on here. I’m overwhelmed by how kind people have been. I’m also immensely grateful to the incredibly courageous people who spoke out despite working on the station.”
Evans also said that in the 24 hours prior, she had received “really nasty” threats.
Speaking to the Evening Standard on Wednesday, Evans said that “as a political journalist…I’ve much rather be judged or asked about my work than have people talking about my body.”
“I’m shocked that [the comments] went out, she continued. “This is the sort of talk that you worry that men have about you when you’re not in the room. There’s always sort of a worry in the back of your mind which is — are people actually interested in what I’m saying or what I’m doing or are they just looking at me physically? And I think that that clip proves that there are some men who are.”
Following a huge backlash on social media, Wootton, 40, issued an apology on X, explaining his “regret” over the exchange he had with Fox on his show.
“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,” he wrote.
“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.”
Wootton concluded his apology by saying he “should have done better” and that he will continue to “seek to tackle the issue and not the person.”
Lucy Frazer, UK’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said Fox’s comments were “inappropriate and unacceptable.”
Television presenter and journalist Carole Malone, described Fox’s comments as “outrageous” — adding that Fox has done himself, “more harm than he could ever do [to Evans].”
“I don’t quite know why that was allowed to go on.”
Shadow Culture Secretary, Thangam Debbonaire, posed the question on X: “Should we [women] have to tell a broadcaster that on-air woman-hate is not OK?”
“Last night’s woman-hating on air has hit a new low. Might want to ask why a national broadcaster would want to keep this man on air. Women are mighty and we will never let voices like this silence us.”
Shadow attorney-general, Emily Thornberry said the on-air incident of “smirking, sniggering” misogyny “needs to be called out”, adding that “British television should never subject women to this sort of abuse”.
This is not the first time Wootton has been in hot waters for his inappropriate behaviour — earlier this month, he was accused of using a pseudonym to solicit explicit images from former Sun colleagues over several years — allegations which GB News has repeatedly refused to investigate.
Wootton is currently being investigated by three separate media groups including MailOnline and News UK over a range of issues.
UK’s media regulator, Ofcom said it will continue its investigation into a large number of complaints about Wootton and Fox’s comments.