Late last month, actor-turned-political activist and commentator Laurence Fox was suspended from his job at GB News in the U.K. after comments he made about a female journalist, Ava Evans, who dismissed concerns about male mental health and suicide rates.
Fox was a guest on anchor Dan Wootton’s highly rated GB News show last Tuesday when he made a series of controversial remarks about Evans, including asking “who would want to shag that?” You can watch the full exchange here.
The story created a firestorm in Britain with Fox, Wootton, and their colleague Fr. Calvin Robinson all being placed on leave. On Wednesday, Fox and Robinson were officially terminated, but that turned out to be the least of the actor’s concerns. Fox was planning to join Megyn for an interview to discuss his employment situation but he had to cancel at the last minute… because he was arrested for an unrelated incident.
On Wednesday, Megyn was instead joined by Robinson to discuss the circumstances that led to Fox’s firing and arrest and why the freedom of thought is increasingly under attack.
Laurence Fox Arrested
Amidst the fallout of Fox’s commentary about Evans, he appeared on Maajid Nawaz’s show on Rumble on Tuesday to discuss his support for the so-called “Blade Runners” group responsible for damaging the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) cameras that fine drivers who operate certain types of vehicles in low emission zones.
Fox told Nawaz he would be willing to be arrested himself because he believes in the “mass removal of the surveillance state.” By Wednesday, Metropolitan Police were searching his London home and placing him under arrest – an event he captured and shared on social media via his ‘The Reclaim Party‘ group.
As it turns out, Fox was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit criminal damage to ULEZ cameras. Megyn took issue with the charge. “That law requires ‘an agreement between two or more parties to commit a criminal offense’ – who did he agree with,” she asked. “You cannot, I think even in the U.K., be arrested for thought crimes, for thinking ‘I will do it’… No, that’s not a crime.”
Policing Thought Crimes
In Robinson’s view, it seems like Fox was arrested on the premise that he thought about doing something. “It’s pre-crime, isn’t it? He said he might commit it, so they’re going to arrest him just in case he does,” he explained. “If it does [go to trial], we’ll find out if you can be arrested for what you’re thinking in this country.”
As it relates to this particular case, Robinson believes authorities are making an example of Fox. “They’re trying to clamp down on it, and I think the thing with Laurence was that they knew he’d stream, they knew he’d put all this on social media, and it’s a shot across the bow,” he shared. “Laurence Fox is a big voice. He’s got a big profile. If we arrest him, maybe it’ll scare a few people off.”
It is part of a larger pattern, Robinson said, that he himself experienced when he was fired from GB News for standing up for what believes is Fox’s right to speak his mind. “My biggest point is at GB News – the so-called ‘home of free speech,’ so-called ‘against cancel culture’ – how many of the high profile figures there have stood up for Laurence, Dan, or myself? How many of them have said this isn’t right,” he asked. “On the right, we don’t stick together and it’s a great shame because we can’t protect free speech and we can’t protect any freedoms unless we stick together.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Robinson by tuning in to episode 640 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.