Who is Laurence Fox? Commentator spends Father’s Day burning Pride flags in video
F
ormer actor Laurence Fox has been criticised after sharing a video of himself on-line making an attempt and failing to set Pride flags on hearth in his backyard.
He posted video of his deed on Twitter, the place he might be heard calling the flags “child mutilation bunting”.
The Pride flags have been then doused in lighter fluid earlier than Laurence tried to ignite them, saying “goodbye” as he moved alongside the row of banners.
The flames shortly extinguished on their very own, stopping the flags from burning within the trick.
The 45-year-old shared the controversial stunt with the comment, “My friend brought me some child mutilation bunting. It got the treatment it deserved.”
His actions have since been extensively criticised by Twitter customers, with some branding the actions “homophobic”.
Fox was briefly banned from the social media platform final yr after altering his profile image to a swastika made out of Pride flags.
Who is Laurence Fox?
Born in Leeds, Fox is a broadcaster, political activist, musician and actor.
He made his appearing debut in 2001 with the movie The Hole. Perhaps his best-known function is James Hathaway within the drama collection Lewis. He has additionally launched a studio album in 2016 titled Holding Patterns.
The actor hit the pause button in 2020 with the leisure trade and has been hustling in broadcasting and politics since.
Today, he frequently presents a Friday evening slot on GB News.
He secured cash in September 2020 to launch Reclaim, a brand new political occasion that has been nicknamed “UKIP for culture”. Fox succeeded Jeremy Hosking because the occasion’s head in October 2020.
More lately, the Reclaim Party gained its first MP Andrew Bridgen after he was expelled from the Conservative Party, and Fox introduced he might be standing within the upcoming 2023 Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election as a Reclaim Party candidate.
Fox was beforehand married to Billie Piper, who he shares two sons with. He is at the moment engaged to Arabella Neagle.
How has he induced controversy previously?
In 2020, Fox publicly criticised the George Floyd demonstrations and COVID-19 vaccines.
He ran towards what he known as “extreme political correctness” within the 2021 London mayoral election after creating the right-wing political occasion Reclaim. He received 1.9 per cent of the vote, forfeiting his election deposit within the course of.
Fox has additionally claimed that Meghan Markle was not a victim of racism when he participated as a panellist on the BBC’s political dialogue present Question Time in January 2020
Due to his opinions, the British actors’ union Equity referred to him as “a disgrace to our industry,” however then rescinded that assertion and issued an apology.
Fox tweeted “get kneeling, fuckers” in August 2021 in reference to the current rape and sexual assault accusations towards black footballer Benjamin Mendy. Twitter erased the message and briefly suspended the account for breaking its “hateful conduct” insurance policies.
Why was he banned from Twitter?
Twitter briefly banned Fox for the same offensive stunt in June of final yr.
Days after a shooter killed two folks on the Oslo Pride event, he outraged people by altering his profile picture to a swastika manufactured from quite a few satisfaction flags.
As a result, his account was suspended for breaking Twitter’s insurance policies on publishing hateful photos and abusive profile content material.
After the restriction was lifted, he returned to social media, sharing the Twitter warning along with his 369,200 followers and speaking concerning the probability of “wokies“ exploding over a recent, modified picture of a flag.