'I will continue to say what I believe to be true': Laurence Fox insists he will 'not stand by' and be silenced by the BLM protests despite fears he may never work again after backlash over comments on race and 'woke' culture
- The star drama Lewis said the possible end of his career was cause of 'sadness'
- Fox has courted controversy with tweets and an appearance on Question Time
- Writing in The Spectator he said he would continue speaking his mind
Laurence Fox has vowed to 'not stand by' and be silenced by Black Lives Matter protests and will continue speaking out against the 'inconsistent god of progressivism' even if he never gets another acting job again.
The star of ITV drama Lewis, writing in the conservative magazine The Spectator, said it was a 'cause of sadness' at the possible loss of his career and the 'bleak view of my prospects' came after his appearance on Question Time.
Not for the first time this year, Fox has courted controversy with his comments on race after he accused Rachel Boyle, an academic at Edge Hill University, of racism after she called him 'a white privileged male' on Question Time.
He criticised the ethnicity lecturer's charges of racism last January amid claims that Meghan Markle was being hounded out of Britain on account of her skin colour.
Not for the first time this year, Fox courted controversy with his comments on race after he accused Rachel Boyle, an academic at Edge Hill University, of racism after she called him 'a white privileged male' on Question Time
The musician, who was previously married to Billie Piper, was then embroiled in yet a further controversy after he was forced to apologise for comments he made about the inclusion of a Sikh soldier in Sam Mendes blockbuster 1917.
The actor courted further controversy this month after a recent tweet he posted, which said: 'Every single human life is precious! The end!'
It is a clear nod to the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by killing of George Floyd by police officers.
Share this article
He suffered an immediate backlash online and said in his Spectator column that an actor friend phoned him and challenged him about the tweet, and they haven't spoken since.
Fox also referred to Blackout Tuesday - where millions across the world boycotted social media by filling their feed with black squares - the actor wrote: 'Instagram seems to be broken'.
Referring to the protest movement in his Spectator column he added: 'Righteous global outrage at a cruel and vile killing has morphed into a different agenda.
The actor courted further controversy this month after a recent tweet he posted, which said: 'Every single human life is precious! The end!
Protesters in Oxford for the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes. The long-running campaign to remove the statue has been reinvigorated after the recent Black Lives Matter protests in the US following the death of George Floyd.
Fox also commented on the Blackout Tuesday protest saying that 'Instagram seems to be broken'
'Similar things have happened with other movements; #MeToo,Extinction Rebellion, Brexit, even the Covid-19 pandemic.
'The left rightly expose great chasms of inequality and hypocrisy in society — then proceed to throw themselves like lemmings into that void, unable to obey their own edicts.
'Desperately important causes have been politicised to the point of meaninglessness, opportunities for action hijacked swiftly by the cynical actors.'
Fox added that the pursuit of justice should 'bring us together, not divide us. Not social justice, not climate justice, not black justice. Just justice.'
He surmised: So here I am, a white posh bloke, who loves his job, who has worked hard to be good at it, facing an uncertain future — all for the heinous sin of shaking my fist at the ugly, hypocritical and inconsistent god of progressivism.
But unhappily for some (my agent and bank manager mainly) I will continue to say what I believe to be true.
'I’m not always right and very often wrong, but unless we can accommodate multiple understandings of a situation soon, it will all end with us abandoning words and reason, the tools given to us to heal and come together, in favour of the simpler but far more terrifying tools of engagement: fists, knives and guns.
