Laurence Fox compared himself to Les Misérables hero Jean Valjean, claimed he was being ‘carted off’ for ‘wrong speak’, and appeared to brush off his Ava Evans rant as a ‘joke’ in bizarre post – hours before arrest for ‘conspiring to damage ULEZ cameras’
- READ MORE: Fox holds book about GULAGS as he is released on bail after arrest
Laurence Fox shared a bizarre post comparing himself to Les Misérables hero Jean Valjean, claiming that ‘wrong speak’ is a crime and appearing to brush off his on-air rant which got him sacked from GB News as a ‘joke’ – just hours before he was arrested by police.
Video posted to X yesterday showed the sacked GB News host sat in his living room as police officers searched his home in South London – after he made comments during a podcast interview encouraging people to remove the Ultra low emission zone cameras and promising to use an angle grinder himself to tear down the devices.
Last night, Fox was pictured leaving Croydon police station clasping a book about Soviet forced labour camps. He also claimed that he learned he had been sacked by GB News by officers while in custody.
The under-fire broadcaster sacked Fox after he sparked a backlash with an on-air rant about journalist Ava Evans. It also sacked another host, Reverend Calvin Robinson, for backing the 45-year-old political activist.
In an Instagram post hours before his arrest yesterday, Fox posed for a photo with a shaved head and a trimmed beard. He compared himself to the fictional protagonist Jean Valjean – who served 19 years locked up as prisoner 24601 for stealing a loaf of bread – and claimed he was going to be ‘carted off to the cancellation camp’ for ‘wrong speak’.
Fox wrote: ‘Bit of final preparation before being carted off to the cancellation camp. Prisoner Number – #24601 – Sentence – Life without parole. Crime – Wrong speak. Specifically. Being rude, whilst trying to make a joke – 25 years. Expressing concern for male suicide rates and men’s mental health.- 25 years – Being a Heterosexual male – Life without parole.’
Scotland Yard confirmed a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit criminal damage to ULEZ cameras and encouraging or assisting offences to be committed.
In a bizarre Instagram post before his arrest, Laurence Fox shared this picture of himself. In the caption, he compared himself to Les Misérables hero Jean Valjean, said he was being ‘carted off’ for ‘wrong speak’ and appeared to brush off his Ava Evans rant as a ‘joke’
In a video shared on X yesterday, Fox sits on a sofa in his living room in a grey suit and smoking a cigar at home as ‘five police officers storm the building’. He was later arrested by police
Fox was pictured leaving Croydon police station clasping a copy of The Gulag Archipelago and a Tesco carrier bag
The actor appeared on Maajid Nawaz’s Warrior Creed podcast on Tuesday – on the Rumble platform – to ‘encourage mass removal of the surveillance state’
Yesterday the 45-year-old political activist also shared a video on X showing five police officers ‘storming his home’ as he was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to damage ULEZ cameras a day after he threatened to tear them down with an angle-grinder.
READ MORE: Laurence Fox is arrested for ‘conspiring to damage ULEZ cameras’ after threatening to use an angle-grinder on them in a podcast
Footage posted to social media showed the actor smoking a cigar in his living room as police officers appeared to search his home in south London before telling the camera: ‘That, ladies and gentlemen, is the country that we live in’.
Last night, Fox posed for the cameras outside Croydon’s custody suite after he was released.
He was spotted scrunching a Tesco bag while also holding onto a copy of The Gulag Archipelago by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Fox stands on the pavement holding up two fingers in a peace sign and then gets into a blue vehicle with a cigar dangling from his mouth.
He then leans out of the passenger window showing off the front cover of the book.
Talking to Sky News, he took the opportunity to hit out at his former employer GB News once again calling them ‘GB joke’ and said he found out about his sacking when police officers told him in custody.
‘They [police officers] went; ‘By the way, you’ve been sacked and there’s loads of paparazzi out there’. And I was like ‘phew’,’ he said.
Asked about his arrest, Fox said: ‘They’ve let me go. It’s Sadiq Khan’s ‘make a big thing out of Loz’.
‘If Sadiq Khan thinks he can scare me, I’ve been intimidated by his coppers before.’
A spokesperson for the Met Police said: ‘On Wednesday, 4 October, officers arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of conspiring to commit criminal damage to ULEZ cameras and encouraging or assisting offences to be committed.
The former actor smokes a cigar as he released on bail after being quizzed by police officers
The actor holds up two fingers in a peace sign and took the opportunity to take another swipe at his former employer’s GB News calling them ‘GB joke’
Fox holding up a copy of The Gulag Archipelago for the cameras before being driven away
‘He was arrested in Stockwell and taken to a south London police station. He has since been bailed to return on a date in mid-December pending further enquiries.’
The Reclaim Party posted a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying Fox would ‘be in touch tomorrow’. It read: ‘Laurence has been released from custody and wants family and friends to know he is safe and well and on the way home.’
Fox had made comments on Maajid Nawaz’s Warrior Creed podcast a day earlier where he said he would encourage a group of anti-ULEZ activists who call themselves ‘Blade Runners’ to tear down ‘every single camera’ in a bid to ‘encourage mass removal of the surveillance state’
He added he was ‘pretty close with several’ Blade Runners – a secretive group behind acts of Ulez camera vandalism – and that he would be ‘out there with my angle grinder’.
Scotland Yard said a 45-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit criminal damage to ULEZ cameras.
GB News later dramatically announced it had sacked Fox after he sparked a backlash by making derogatory remarks live on its channel about feminist journalist Ava Evans.
On Wednesday, a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, showed Fox sitting in his living room smoking a cigar while police appeared to search his home.
In the footage, he says: ‘Look how many coppers there are in my house…Coming to take everything out of my house. That ladies and gentlemen, is the country that we live in.’
It appeared to show multiple officers in what looks like Fox’s living room as he sits on a sofa watching them, dressed in a grey suit and smoking.
Who are the ULEZ ‘Blade Runners’?
In recent months the ‘Blade Runners’ have brought misery to Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ expansion.
By targeting ULEZ cameras in parts of London where the £12.50-a-day charge has been introduced, the vigilantes have tried their best to disrupt the scheme.
Cameras have been covered with sticky spray, vandalised and even cut down the poles they are attached to.
The secretive group has vowed to get rid of all Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras and has taken credit for hundreds of them being damaged.
Taking their name from the dystopian 1982 science fiction film in which the eponymous Blade Runners hunt down bio-engineered humanoids, members insist the cameras are a form of control over ordinary people.
One Blade Runner told MailOnline earlier this year the ULEZ was a ‘way to try to… restrict our movements’.
They said: ‘Everything we are doing is for our own freedoms.
‘It’s the tip of the iceberg. We do not live in a democracy.
‘We will fight with everything we have for our freedoms.’
The Met Police said in a statement: ‘On Wednesday 4, October officers arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of conspiring to commit criminal damage to ULEZ cameras and encouraging or assisting offences to be committed.
‘He was arrested in Stockwell and has been taken to a South London police station where he remains in custody.’
Later the same day, GB News said it had ‘ended its employment relationship’ with Laurence Fox following comments he made on the channel about female journalist Ava Evans.
It comes after GB News chiefs held emergency talks at the weekend as the channel fights for its future following a series of scandals and record viewer complaints.
Regulator Ofcom has opened 12 investigations into the broadcaster, including one examining the sexist on-air comments made last week by actor Laurence Fox.
The remarks about Ms Evans led to the suspension of Fox and presenter Dan Wootton. More than 7,300 viewers complained.
It is understood that investors and managers from GB News were in contact this weekend to discuss how to move on amid the bad publicity.
‘It is crunch time for GB News,’ a former employee told The Observer. ‘They cannot just bask in notoriety forever because they do need to make some money and they need to keep the right to call themselves a channel for news programmes.’
Last week the channel apologised after Fox attacked Ms Evans, a correspondent for the news website JOE, in an on-air rant on Tuesday evening. Fox said ‘Who would want to sh*g that?’ and described her as a ‘little woman’.
He claimed his remarks were in response to comments made by Ms Evans on BBC’s Politics Live, when she was accused of being dismissive about men’s mental health issues.
Ms Evans said Fox’s comments were ‘unforgivable’ and that a responsible broadcaster should never have allowed the rant to go as far as it did. According to sources at GB News, Wootton was suspended for ignoring instructions to stop Fox, which were being relayed by senior management via his earpiece, and for later failing to read an autocue apology on air. He apologised the next day.
The Blade Runners are a group of people who are targeting ULEZ cameras in London and vandalising them
Laurence Fox pictured on the Triggernometry podcast on Friday
Fox was suspended for his on-air rant about Ms Evans after her previous comments about male suicide. Pictured: Ms Evans appearing on the Politics JOE podcast
Speaking on the Triggernometry podcast with comedians Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin, actor-turned-political activist Fox said he had become ’emotional’ as he felt Ms Evans had made light of male mental health struggles.
He admitted the remarks were ‘crass’ but said he didn’t feel they ‘merited the wall-to-wall’ media coverage they have received in recent days and the chaos it has brought the news channel.
Speaking on Friday after his suspension, Fox told the Triggernometry podcast that he regretted the tone of his remarks on Dan Wootton’s show the Tuesday before.
READ MORE HERE: ‘Blade Runner’ vows they won’t stop destroying cameras until Sadiq Khan ends London’s hated ULEZ expansion
When the hosts remarked to Fox that ‘in the cold light of day, it [the clip] doesn’t look good does it?’, he responded by admitting: ‘No.’
He said that he had ‘strong feelings’ on the show after being riled by comments Ms Evans had previously made when she was appearing on the BBC speaking about the topic of male suicide, in which she called for a minister of mental health for everyone in government, dismissing the suggestion of just a men’s mental health minister.
He told the podcast: ‘When I listen back to it now, it’s just kind of crass. It’s the kind of thing you’d say in the pub.
‘I think I made the point which was the point I wanted to make, which is when you’ve got a misandrist fourth wave feminist who wants men to be terrified and scared of women, who tweets pictures of herself saying ‘I’m socially distancing from men’, I’m just like ‘stop’.
‘Instead of dismantling her ideas I just said ‘I can’t think of a single man who’d want to s*** you, I mean which self-respecting man would want to s*** you?’ which was also trying to be funny. Big mistake.’
The father-of-two said had ‘demeaned’ Ms Evans and apologised, but said: ‘I don’t think it’s misogyny or anything like that. I think it’s disrespectful.’
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