GB News has suspended the presenter Laurence Fox after he went on a misogynistic on-air rant about the political journalist Ava Evans.

Fox appeared on Dan Wootton to discuss comments made by Evans about men’s mental health, before commenting at length on the journalist’s appearance and why he would ignore her in a bar.

In the segment, Fox called Evans a “little woman” and went on to say: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel.

“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’d want to shag that?”

As the GB News drama continued to unfold – after Lawrence Fox’s suspension from the broadcaster for an on-air misogynistic rant – the story took an unexpected twist.

It was little surprise that Fox, the darling of rightwing culture warriors, would double down on comments that even GB News deemed too offensive to let slide. But Fox’s decision to turn on Dan Wootton – whom GB News has refused to investigate over allegations of historic inappropriate sexual messaging – was more of a curve ball. By Wednesday night Wootton had also been suspended by the channel and GB News insiders were in shock at the loss of two of their highest-profile presenters.

A little after 9am, Fox posted on X, asking for criticism to be directed at him, not Wootton. “First of all, don’t take a pop at @danwootton for something I said. That’s not fair,” he posted, before going on to say he stood by “every word of what I said” and he was “totally within my rights to say that I wouldn’t want to shag a hyper-offended 4th wave feminist and not apologise.” But an hour later, after he was suspended by GB News, his tone appeared to sour. “A phone call might have been polite,” he said, adding that GB News, and by implication Wootton, “knew exactly what I intended to say”.

Then, at 11:04am, Fox went nuclear. Reposting Wootton’s apology, he wrote: “Honesty is the best policy”, followed by a photograph that appeared to show an exchange between the pair – although names were not included – suggesting that Wootton had found the exchange amusing. “Making you giggle is my weekly joy,” said the first message, sent apparently at 9.55pm, followed by several laughing emojis. The response was several laughing emojis, followed by: “You can imagine them freaking out in the gallery!!!!!”, to which the response came: “So much fun. Xx”