Ofcom has launched a proper investigation into GB News after the regulator obtained 1000’s of complaints about Laurence Fox’s feedback on Dan Wootton’s present on Tuesday.

The announcement got here after Dan Wootton’s contract as a columnist for MailOnline was terminated, in response to a spokesperson for the news web site’s mother or father firm.

In an announcement, Ofcom stated: “We have launched an investigation into GB News under our rules on offence, after receiving around 7,300 complaints about Tuesday’s episode of Tonight with Dan Wootton.”

Wootton was suspended by GB News on Wednesday, after a row over feedback made by actor-turned-political-activist Fox, who had been a fellow presenter for the channel.

Fox was taken off air following the remarks he made on air about feminine PoliticsJOE journalist Ava Evans, which have been described as “unacceptable, unjustifiable and indefensible”.

One of his feedback included asking: “Who would want to shag that?”

A spokesperson for DMG Media, the mother or father firm of MailOnline, stated: “Following events this week, DMG Media can confirm that Dan Wootton’s freelance column with MailOnline – which had already been paused – has now been terminated, along with his contract.”

He had already been suspended by GB News after the episode, with the channel saying it was investigating the incident.

It got here after the broadcaster stated it had suspended Fox “immediately” and claimed it will be “apologising formally” to Ms Evans.

GB News stated in an announcement: “[We have] suspended Dan Wootton following feedback made on his programme by Laurence Fox final night time.

“This follows our choice earlier immediately to formally droop Mr Fox.”

As Fox’s comments drew widespread condemnation, Wootton offered an apology to Ms Evans in a public post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he described the reporter as “sensible”.

He apologised “unreservedly” for what was said during the show and conceded he should have done this immediately on air.

Wootton, who could be seen laughing as Fox made his remarks, reiterated his “remorse” over the incident in another social media post on Wednesday morning “having appeared on the footage” of what he described as a “weird change”.

“I ought to have intervened instantly,” he said, adding: “I do know I ought to have accomplished higher. I’m devastated…”

Read extra:
Reaction and what Fox said – in full
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Fox has refused to apologise and appeared to counsel GB News was conscious of what he was roughly going to say upfront.

Ms Evans stated she felt she has been put into the center of a furore she did not ask to be concerned in.

After the incident, she stated she was “really hurt” by Fox’s feedback which had been about her “body rather than her work”.

Fox’s feedback about Ms Evans aired on GB News following the journalist’s look on the BBC’s Politics Live, on which she mentioned subjects together with psychological well being.

He was requested about Ms Evans’ essential feedback about solutions there must be a minister for males to handle psychological unwell well being. She later stated her remarks had been “a little rash” and stated she was “actually very interested in a brief for a minister on young men’s mental health”.

Fox stated: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman, ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel?”

“That little woman has been fed… spoon-fed oppression day after day after day… starting with the lie of the gender wage gap, and she’s sat there and I’m going, if I met you in a bar and that was like sentence three, chances of me just walking away are just huge,” Fox added.

“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 would want to shag that?”

Ofcom has stated it obtained quite a lot of complaints concerning the incident.

“We are assessing these complaints against our broadcast rules and will publish the outcome as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson added.

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief government, stated the regulator’s guidelines “are designed to protect audiences from offensive and harmful material, and to uphold the integrity of broadcast news and current affairs programming, while always ensuring that freedom of expression is front and centre in every decision we take.”

“This is highly valued by audiences and central to our democracy,” she added.

“The decisions we take, always based on facts and evidence once a programme has aired, are vital if we are to protect our vibrant media landscape. We continue to apply and enforce these rules without fear or favour.”