Right-wing UK TV channel fires two presenters in sexism row

LONDON: GB News, which has drawn comparisons with US television network Fox News for its unabashed right-wing populist agenda, on Wednesday said it had sacked two presenters for sexism on air.

Actor-turned-”anti-woke” activist Laurence Fox was suspended after a string of personal attacks on a female journalist on a show presented by journalist Dan Wootton last week.

At one point, Fox, 45, asked: “Who would want to shag that?”

In the furore that followed, fellow presenter Calvin Robinson, an evangelical preacher and conservative commentator, voiced his support online for Wootton.

Fox and Wootton later apologised but GB News said it had now “ended its employment relationship” with both after an internal investigation.

A company probe into Wootton, who allegedly ignored calls to challenge Fox´s remarks, is ongoing, it added. Fox has presented a weekly show on the channel, which launched in June 2021 billing itself as an independent competitor to more established broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky News.

It has made no secret of its desire to appeal to Brexit voters who backed the UK´s departure from the European Union, claiming their views were ignored by mainstream channels.

Brexit champion and arch-eurosceptic populist Nigel Farage is one of its star presenters.

On Monday, former interior minister Priti Patel called the channel “defenders of free speech” and criticised the BBC as “Brexit-bashing, free-speech deniers”.