GB News boss Angelos Frangopoulos has said comments made by Laurence Fox about journalist Ava Evans on the channel were “way past the limits of acceptance”.
The former Lewis actor was suspended by the channel after he asked: “Who would want to s**g that?” during a Dan Wootton Tonight show on Tuesday. He has since said he expected to be sacked.
Mr Wootton was also suspended amid a GB News investigation and a probe by Ofcom, which had about 7,300 complaints over the episode.
In his first interview since the controversy, Mr Frangopoulos told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That should not have happened. The way it was handled was also not the way it should have happened.”
He issued a personal apology to Ms Evans, adding: “They (the comments) did not reflect what we believe is appropriate conversation as a media company, as a part of the national conversation, it really is an apology, it was just really inappropriate.”
He said GB News has a “process to follow” but he expects the internal investigation to be “resolved very quickly”.
The former Sky News Australia chief executive added: “I was appalled by those comments, they are not in keeping with the values with us as a business and obviously we took action immediately.”
MailOnline announced on Thursday that it had terminated Mr Wootton’s contract as a columnist, he had already been suspend owing to separate allegations.
The media regulator will investigate the pair for an alleged breach of the Broadcasting Code that states presenters must ensure material which may cause offence is justified by context.
Following the backlash, Mr Wootton apologised to Evans, describing the journalist as “brilliant”.
He posted on X: “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.’ He added: ‘I apologise unreservedly for what was a very unfortunate lapse in judgment on my part under the intense pressure of a bizarre exchange.
“I know I should have done better. I’m devastated that I let down the team and our supportive GBN family.”
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Mr Fox posted an apology last night on X. He told Ms Evans he was “sorry for demeaning you”. He added that he expected to be sacked by GB News.
Ms Evans said the footage made her feel “physically sick”.
She told PoliticsJoe that Wootton called her “multiple times throughout the night” after the exchange but added: “I don’t want to hear from him.”
Ms Evans said: “This is actually nothing to do with me. What I don’t like about it was that, when the comments were said, the presenter (Wootton) laughed about it.
“There was an entire gallery of people watching it go out who did nothing from the viewer’s perspective to stop it.”
