A drag queen has launched a legal action against Laurence Fox after the actor labelled him and others ‘paedophiles’ during a bizarre online spat.
Crystal – who was a contestant on the first season of hit show Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK – confirmed he has filed defamation proceedings against the 42-year-old ex-actor.
Deputy chair of LGBT charity Stonewall Simon Blake and Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp are named as claimants.
All three were falsely branded ‘paedophiles’ by Mr Fox after they called him ‘racist’.
In October 2020, Mr Fox accused supermarket chain Sainsbury’s of ‘promoting racial segregation and discrimination’ and promised to boycott the supermarket chain after it promoted Black History Month.
Drag Queen Crystal (left) – who was a contestant on the first season of hit show Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK – confirmed he has filed defamation proceedings against Laurence Fox (right)
The drag queen today confirmed that he has ‘filed defamation proceedings’ (pictured)
Deputy chair of LGBT charity Stonewall Simon Blake (pictured) and Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp are named as claimants.
All three were falsely branded ‘paedophiles’ by Mr Fox after they called him ‘racist’. Pictured: Nicola Thorp
Crystal – whose real name is Colin Munro – replied to his Tweet, writing: ‘Imagine being this proud of being a racist. So cringe. Total snowflake behaviour.’
The Reclaim Party leader, who is running in London’s Mayoral election this year, replied in a since-deleted tweet: ‘Says the paedophile.’
Mr Fox founded the Reclaim Party last year to fight the ‘culture wars’ and today used the launch of his manifesto to defend his right to call people ‘paedophiles’ on Twitter.
He cited free speech and claimed it is just a ‘meaningless and baseless’ insult.
At the time of the spat, Mr Munro said Mr Fox had ‘seriously defamed’ him and said he would launch legal auction.
The drag queen today confirmed that he has ‘filed defamation proceedings’, adding: ‘As you may have seen in the press yesterday, I have filed defamation proceedings against Laurence Fox.
‘My lawyer has advised it would be inappropriate to comment further, but I wanted to publicly acknowledge it. Thanks for your support.’
It comes after Mr Blake on Monday said he too would sue Mr Fox for calling him a paedophile – after the Stonewall deputy leader branded him a ‘racist t***’
Ms Thorp – who branded Mr Fox ‘unequivocally, publicly and undeniably a racist’ before being called a ‘paedophile by the former actor – is also named as a claimant.
Law firm Patron Law is representing the claimants.
Mr Fox had accused Sainsbury’s of ‘promoting racial segregation and discrimination’ and promised to boycott the supermarket chain after it promoted Black History Month.
He said: ‘Dear Sainsbury’s. I won’t be shopping in your supermarket ever again whilst you promote racial segregation and discrimination. I sincerely hope others join me. RT’
It came in the wake of Sainsbury’s announcing they would be marking Black History Month, an annual celebration of achievements of the black community, recognising the central role black people have played in history.
In a separate thread, Mr Fox found himself in a fiery debate with former Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp after she said Fox was ‘unequivocally, publicly and undeniably a racist’.
He hit back: ‘Any company giving future employment to Nicola Thorpe or providing her with a platform does so with the complete knowledge that she is unequivocally, publicly and undeniably a paedophile.[sic]’
Fox added: ‘Language is powerful. To accuse someone of racism without any evidence whatsoever to back up that accusation is a deep slander.
‘It carries the same stigma and reputation destroying harm as accusing someone of paedophilia. Here endeth the lesson.’
He later deleted the tweets, claiming he was ‘repeatedly, continuously and falsely smeared as a racist’.
Mr Munro wrote in response to Fox’s tweet: ‘Imagine being this proud of being a racist! So cringe’
Mr Blake said Fox had defamed him and that he was pursuing legal action against him
He today defended his right to use the term ‘paedophiles’ at the launch of his Reclaim party manifesto today.
Reclaim’s policies include abolishing lockdown from the date of the election, removing mask mandates, scrapping low-traffic neighbourhoods and removing ‘unnecessary’ cycle lanes.
Mr Fox also vowed to defund any schools or institutions ‘that seek to undermine our shared culture through critical social justice or critical race theory’.
When asked about the defamation case, Mr Fox said: ‘I must check my emails, I’m not aware of that.’
He added: ‘People can call me whatever they want.’
Mr Blake earlier tweeted asking Fox to delete the ‘untrue’ slur. Fox had written, ‘Pretty rich coming from a peadophile’
When told it was he who had allegedly called the three claimants paedophiles, he replied: ‘I was called a racist.’
Mr Fox added: ‘Free speech. You throw meaningless and baseless insults at someone you get a meaningless and baseless insult in return.’
A spokesman for Patron Law, which is representing the three claimants, confirmed that proceedings had been issued at the High Court in London, and said the firm would not be commenting further at this time.
In his speech in front of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square in London, Mr Fox said: ‘A year ago we lent our government our liberty for three short weeks to flatten the curve and now, a year on, they refuse to give back what never belonged to them in the first place.
Mr Fox had accused Sainsbury’s of ‘promoting racial segregation and discrimination’ and promised to boycott the supermarket chain after it promoted Black History Month
‘There is no reason we are being kept in lockdown, we have been manipulated, frightened and outright lied to by this government, who instead of trusting us to get on with our lives are now flirting with even more authoritarian measures.’
He criticised the Government for refusing to rule out vaccine passports, and pledged to ‘take the politics out of policing’.
‘Police will police streets and not tweets,’ he said.
Mr Fox also pledged to build 250,000 new homes and conduct a ‘full audit’ of green belt land.
‘Precious landscapes (will be) preserved for eternity and unattractive scrubland (will be) transformed into beautiful and affordable housing,’ he said.
When asked how he was going to implement his policies of defunding schools and academies that teach critical social justice or race theory, he said: ‘It’s common sense.
‘You take the politics out of education, you take the politics out of policing. You say to a teacher ‘do your job, teach our children how to think, not what to think’.’
Reclaim has also promised free transport on all London bus and tube services for six months from the election, something critics say would bankrupt the network.