Under-fire Laurence Fox has been pictured for the first time since he appeared on GB News and launched a misogynistic rant about journalist Ava Evans in which he said: ‘Who would want to sh*g that?’
Fox claimed he is unable to ‘speak freely’ about the hearing as he continued to lambast the channel he had, until this week, appeared regularly on.
GB News announced Fox’s suspension after it received huge backlash for comments made by Fox when he appeared on Dan Wootton‘s Tuesday show. Later Wootton was also suspended from the channel for his involvement in the interview, after apologising to Ava online.
Fox appeared in public to attend a protest against Drag Queen Story Hour outside the Honour Oak pub in London, alongside right-wing group Turning Point UK.
Speaking at the protest, Laurence Fox struggled to make himself heard over a chorus of people who had turned out in support of the local LGBT+ community.
Fox said he is unable to ‘speak freely’ about the hearing on Friday, before showing up at the Honour Oak pub to protest against drag queens on Saturday
Ava Evans said Fox’s comments were ‘unforgivable’ and she now fears for her safety given the number of threats she has been receiving since the show
Chants of ‘Nazi scum off our streets’ and ‘loser’ could be heard as Fox attempted to speak over counter-protesters using a microphone.
He was also seen taking selfies with attendees and addressing counter protesters through a wall of police officers who maintained a distance between the two groups.
He returned to the venue at the pub’s monthly Family Fun Day, which sees face painting, a family friendly storybook session, read by a drag queen, DJs and even a Drag Brunch.
The venue has become a hotspot for protests against Drag Queen Story Hour, which sees a drag queen read a family friendly story to children and their parents.
On Friday evening in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Fox said: ‘Just completed my GB News show trial. I mean disciplinary hearing.
‘I think the rules are that I can’t speak freely about it. Which is totally on brand. For the home of free speech.’
He previously posted online that he ‘expected’ to be sacked from the channel for his comments.
On the GB News show, Fox noted it was after the watershed before he unleashed an extraordinary rant in which he suggested Ms Evans was a man-hater, called her a ‘little woman’ and asked the nation ‘who would want to sh*g that?’.
He added: ‘Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman, ever, ever, who wasn’t an Incel?’
He had been riled by comments Ms Evans had previously made when she was appearing on the BBC speaking about the topic of male suicide, in which she called for a minister of mental health for everyone in government, dismissing the suggestion of just a men’s mental health minister.
However Ms Evans was not invited on the programme or aware she was to be mentioned, as she told the Mail last night.
The clip went viral overnight as Fox – an actor-turned highly contentious ‘free speech’ activist who once proudly filmed himself setting fire to pride flags – refused to apologise.
It was in contrast to Dan Wootton who, having initially appeared to take no action, publicly apologised on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He said: ‘I want to reiterate my regret over last night’s exchange with Laurence on GB News.
‘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.’
Laurence Fox smokes as he stands next to representatives from Turning Point UK
Police officers push back against counter-protesters outside the pub on Saturday
Laurence Fox appeared to be being held back by police officers in London as he attended the protest on Saturday
Fox (right) spoke about Ava Evans during Dan Wootton (left) Tonight on Tuesday
Fox eventually made a rambling apology in which he said he should have cut back on the ‘bar banter’ and has since alleged he is being silenced by ‘the mob’ and mainstream media.
The original clip of his comments about Ms Evans received 7,300 complaints to Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator said.
The channel dipped further into chaos on Friday after a third presenter, Calvin Robinson, was also suspended after he said he would refuse to appear on his own show without Dan Wootton.
Robinson, who is not a Reverand for the Church of England but does hold the title with the right-wing Free Church of England, broke the news he was suspended after previously accusing GB News managers of ‘capitulating’ to the ‘woke mob’.
It followed GB News boss Angelos Frangopoulos apologising to Ms Evans on air when appearing in a tense BBC interview with Amol Rajan on Friday morning.
Mr Frangopoulos said that Fox’s comments should not have been on air, but that once they had been said they should have been ‘properly challenged’.
He added the comments had left him ‘appalled’ but stressed the channel needed to be given time to fully investigate the situation.
Fox’s overt reference to her sexual attractiveness, and his assessment of it, left Ms Evans completely shocked as she sat at home, in her London flat, ‘on my own’.
Once she realised what had happened she tweeted the clip in an effort to draw attention to it. While she has received an outpouring of support, she says she has also received countless death threats and other abusive messages.
‘It would have been horrible for a woman to hear she was being discussed in those terms in the pub’, says Ava, in her first, devastating, full account of what happened.
‘I’m not naive. I know that men talk like that about women. But this was on national TV. It was demeaning. It was dehumanising.
Ms Evans said: ‘I’m not naive. I know that men talk like that about women. But this was on national TV. It was demeaning. It was dehumanising’
Police officers were in attendance at the pub to keep protesters and counter-protesters separated from one another
Many people turned out to counter-demonstrate against Laurence Fox and Turning Point UK on Saturday
Those supporting the Honour Oak pub held posters and chanted at the protesters
Calvin Robinson – seen in London on March 10 – has become the third presenter to have been suspended from GB News
‘As if it was an option for him to have sex with me. As if men get to look at you and decide if they want to.’
Ms Evans had just got home from work on Tuesday when she received a ‘brace yourself’ message from an acquaintance who works at GB News and who had witnessed Fox’s rant.
‘I hadn’t been watching but then another friend sent me the video. I could not believe it.’
As she spoke to the Daily Mail last night, her phone was still receiving rape threats, unprintably abusive messages and unsolicited sexual images.
She said she is planning on involving police in the matter as she ‘fears for her safety’.
But Ms Evans added, as she has previously said this week, that the story is ‘not about her.’
‘It is about every woman, because the message he was sending was that it is OK to demean a woman like this. All women are game — to be reduced to their sh*gability.’