GB News has suspended the presenters Dan Wootton and Laurence Fox as the channel struggles to contain the fallout after misogynistic comments made on Wootton’s show.The rightwing news channel said on Wednesday: “GB News 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.”GB News has refused repeatedly to investigate Wootton over separate, unrelated, allegations that he used the pseudonym Martin Branning to send sexually explicit messages to former colleagues.Wootton, 40, is already facing investigations by both MailOnline, which has suspended him, and his former employers at News UK over these historical claims. As a result he is now being investigated by three separate media groups over a variety of issues.The latest scandal began on Tuesday evening when Fox appeared on the Dan Wootton Tonight programme on GB News to discuss comments made by the political journalist Ava Evans about men’s mental health.Rather than focus on her arguments, Fox instead used his time to discuss the journalist’s appearance and explain why he would ignore her in a bar.He called Evans a “little woman” and 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.”Evans, who posted the clip of the segment on X – the social media site formerly known as Twitter – after it aired, said the comments had made her feel “physically sick”.On Wednesday Evans said she had received an apology from GB News.“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 told the BBC Newscast podcast.“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.”Evans added that she had received threats in a “really nasty” past 24 hours.During the discussion on Tuesday, Wootton could be seen smirking, although he did attempt to steer the conversation elsewhere before concluding: “And she’s a very beautiful woman, Laurence, very beautiful woman.”Afterwards, following a social media backlash, Wootton issued an apology and insisted he was laughing only out of shock at Fox’s comments.He said: “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 … I should have intervened immediately to challenge offensive and misogynistic remarks.”Fox, also a presenter on GB News, was suspended by the channel on Wednesday morning after politicians and fellow GB News staff expressed their disgust at his comments.Fox, 45, then turned his fire on Wootton, suggesting his apology and justification for the laughter were not sincere.Fox shared a screengrab of a private Twitter conversation from just after the broadcast, captioned with the words “Honesty is the best policy”, that appeared to show Wootton posting a number of laughing emojis in response Fox’s comments about Evans.It is rare for the rightwing GB News channel, which has encountered many controversies and multiple regulatory inquiries during its short existence, to issue an apology.The media regulator, Ofcom, which has struggled to deal with GB News pushing the boundaries of British TV regulation, said it was urgently looking into a large number of complaints about Fox’s comments.The media regulator has six separate investigations into GB News still going, with the channel already found to have breached the broadcasting code on three different occasions within the last year.GB News has close links to the Conservative government, receiving preferential access to ministers and spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a year employing Tory MPs as presenters.Wootton and Fox’s comments could also cause a headache for Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire who provides much of the financial backing for GB News.He is putting together a bid to buy the Daily Telegraph but could face challenges if he is not considered an appropriate buyer for the title due to the conduct of his other media businesses.Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, said Fox’s comments were “inappropriate and unacceptable”, while her Labour opposite number, Thangam Debbonaire, put the episode in the context of society-wide misogyny.She said: “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.”
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