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Broadcaster GB News, backed by hedge fund boss Paul Marshall, has been heavily criticized by senior MPs and is being investigated by Britain’s media watchdog for airing sexist comments by actor Laurence Fox towards a female political reporter.
Ofcom said it “received a number of complaints about comments made by Laurence Fox on the right-leaning channel”, which paid Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson and former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg to present the show cost.
It added: “We are assessing these complaints against our broadcasting rules and will announce the outcome as soon as possible.”
UK News suspended Fox’s programming on the channel after launching an investigation and apologized for “completely unacceptable” comments made in an interview on Tuesday night.
Actor and irredentist leader Fox made the comments to Joe.com’s political reporter Ava Evans.
In other comments, he described her as a “little woman” and said “show me a self-respecting man who would crawl into bed with that woman.”
British news has also come under pressure to condemn the show’s presenter Dan Wootton.
“I can see how inappropriate my reaction to his completely unacceptable comments was, and I want to be clear that I was not at all amused by them,” Wooten said in a statement.
Fox said on social media that British news knew what he wanted to say. “If you’re expecting a groveling apology, I suggest you don’t hold your breath,” he said in a post. “I will never apologize to a mob.”
He also took to social media to post an apparent exchange with Wootton after the interview.
Marshall owns about 45% of the channel and is preparing a bid for Telegraph Media Group. The group has been put up for sale after Lloyds seized control from the Barclays family earlier this year.
In a private Labor WhatsApp group, one MP called on frontbenchers to boycott the GB News incident, while other MPs said they already had a policy of not engaging with the controversial broadcaster.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer initially refused to condemn Fox’s comments but later branded them “unacceptable”.
Another Conservative MP, Philip Davies, who hosts a program on the channel with his wife Esther McVey, who is also a Conservative politician, said Fox’s comments ” Totally unacceptable, unreasonable and indefensible”.
Conservative officials confirmed they planned to continue placing MPs on the network but said the party had screened the programs it participates in and that Wootton’s program was not included.
Wootton has been accused of inappropriate behavior, leading to a separate investigation by News UK, publisher of The Sun. Wooten denies any wrongdoing.
“We’re not going to change our approach. That’s like saying we should reconsider putting people on the BBC after Sachsgate,” one Conservative insider said, referring to the 2008 BBC scandal over broadcasting Russell Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross were scrutinized and fined by Ofcom over sex-themed prank calls.
Labor frontbenchers also spoke out. Shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire said on X (formerly Twitter): “Should we (women) tell broadcasters that it’s wrong to hate women on air?”
Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry said the “giggling, snickering” incident of misogyny “needs to be called out”, adding that “women should never be subjected to this kind of abuse on British television”.
GB News has breached broadcasting rules three times since its launch in June 2021. Most recently, it breached UK impartiality rules after airing an interview between two Conservative MPs and the UK chancellor.
GB News is under investigation for a further six potential breaches of impartiality, two of which were presented by Rees-Mogg.
In May, Ofcom took action against GB News for airing claims by Naomi Wolf that the Covid-19 vaccine amounted to a premeditated crime — “mass murder” — and was comparable to the actions of “doctors in pre-Nazi Germany” without challenge or context.
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