Throughout an look on GB Information, Fox made a number of derogatory remarks, disagreeing together with her opinion. Regardless of Evans not being current, he questioned whether or not anybody would wish to “climb into mattress with that lady” and added: “Who’d wish to s*** that?”
The fallout from the on-air incident led to Fox and presenter Dan Wootton being suspended. It additionally prompted an investigation into the “inappropriate” feedback.
Fox was later sacked after reviews emerged that he had been arrested at his London residence on suspicion of conspiring to commit felony injury to Ulez cameras. GB Information additionally sacked presenter Calvin Robinson after he publicly voiced help for Fox and Wootton.
GB Information stated: “Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson had been each suspended final week pending inside investigations which have now concluded. As of at this time, GB Information has ended its employment relationship with Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson. The interior investigation into Dan Wootton continues.”
Evans later admitted she had acquired threats since Fox’s remarks and felt “deeply embarrassed” by the ordeal.
In 2024, Ofcom dominated that Fox’s “misogynistic” feedback breached broadcasting guidelines designed to guard viewers from offensive content material.
The broadcasting regulator stated: “[The comments] lowered her contribution to a broadcast dialogue on psychological well being – in her skilled capability as a political journalist — to a judgement on whether or not she, or girls like her who publicly expressed their political views, had been sexually fascinating to males.”
So who’s Evans and what was Fox’s challenge together with her?
Ava Evans on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine programme
Channel 5 / PA
Evans is the political editor for the digital information platform, JOE. She covers subjects similar to commerce unions and tales about Westminster.
Earlier than becoming a member of PoliticsJOE as a political correspondent in October 2021, Evans labored at World’s LBC Radio, the place she was the lead producer for the James O’Brien programme for over two years.
Based mostly on her LinkedIn profile, Evans has additionally labored for varied shops, together with BBC Information, Condé Nast, and Wired.
Her profile additionally says she obtained a BA in English literature from the College of Sussex in 2018.
Dan Wootton in the course of the interview with Laurence Fox (proper) on an episode of Dan Wootton Tonight
PA
What did Ava Evans say earlier than Laurence Fox’s remarks?
Evans and Fox weren’t even on the identical programme. Evans had spoken a day earlier on BBC’s Politics Reside about males’s psychological well being.
Responding to a suggestion {that a} minister of males could possibly be appointed to assist sort out males’s psychological well being, Evans stated that it’d feed right into a “tradition struggle”. She added that it was a disaster that everybody faces.
She stated: “I believe that it feeds into the tradition struggle a bit of bit, this minister for males argument.
“[Mental illness] is a disaster that’s endemic all through the nation, not particular to males. And I believe quite a lot of ministers bandy this about to — I’m sorry — make an enemy out of ladies.”
After her look on the present, she stated: “I used to be a bit of rash on my anti-minister for males feedback, which I do remorse and am truly very fascinated by a quick for a minister on younger males’s psychological well being.”
Laurence Fox has responded following a backlash over feedback he made whereas showing on GB Information
PA Archive
What did Laurence Fox say about Ava Evans?
A day later, actor-turned-politician Fox appeared on Wootton’s GB Information present, the place he was requested concerning the current remarks. As a substitute of responding to her place on the matter, Fox as an alternative criticised her look.
He launched right into a livid tirade by which he branded Evans a “little lady” and stated: “Present me a single self-respecting man that wish to climb into mattress with that lady ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel.
“We’d like highly effective, robust, wonderful girls who make nice factors for themselves. We don’t want these form of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d wish to s*** that?”
“Sorry, it’s true although,” he added, as he and Wootton smirked.
Evans beforehand revealed that she’d acquired an apology from GB Information, explaining: “It was an e mail from the editor — a really gracious e mail — mainly telling me that what Fox stated was not consultant of the remainder of the GB Information outfit.”
She additionally acquired a public apology from Wootton, who stated in September 2023: “Having appeared on the footage, I can see how inappropriate my response to his completely unacceptable remarks seems to be and wish to be clear that I used to be on no account amused by the feedback… I ought to have intervened instantly to problem offensive and misogynistic remarks.”
Fox additionally issued a public apology in September 2023. Talking in a video on X, previously Twitter, Fox stated he had been indignant with Evans over feedback she made on a BBC debate round male suicide, however apologised for “demeaning her”. He stated he anticipated to be sacked.
He stated: “If I used to be going to be wise and I might replay it, I might say: ‘Any self-respecting man in 2023 would most likely be effectively suggested to keep away from a girl who possessed that worldview as a result of she would most likely trigger him nothing however hurt’.
“However what I did say was, , ‘I wouldn’t shag that’, and all that form of stuff, which isn’t proper. It’s demeaning to her, to Ava, so I’m sorry for demeaning you in that method.
“Nonetheless indignant I’m with you continue to for doing that, and it demeans me as a result of it’s not consultant of who I’m.”
Fox has since been concerned in different authorized circumstances, whereas Wootton has launched an unbiased YouTube platform Dan Wootton Outspoken.
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