Laurence Fox defends labelling critics 'paedophiles'
13 October 2020, 11:21
Laurence Fox has defended his use of the word "paedophile" to hit back at his critics on social media.
The actor and political activist said the word was "linguistic" and used to highlight him suffering "several months of being smeared" with accusations of racism.
While speaking to LBC, he said: "I thought 'I'll just throw another meaningless word back at you' if that's the state of discourse that we've reached that words mean nothing."
Nick Ferrari questioned the wisdom of using the word, telling the activist that it was "the stuff of the playground" and questioned whether he could have used a different word.
"I could have said anything - I could have called them a lollipop with hindsight," Mr Fox replied.
He continued: I think the point is a linguistic one - if you're going to make an allegation against someone as serious as racism, which essentially can be a career-ending allegation as these people well know.
"My response was to go 'What's the most cruel word that I can respond to you with so you can understand what it's like."
He set up political party Reclaim - which aims to tackle "woke" culture and champion freedom of speech - after a series of controversial comments throughout the summer.
![The care worker was speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari [Stock Image]](https://images.lbc.co.uk/images/259982?width=150&crop=1_1&signature=GpampGfKjjOskFiIBY-LJuyxdwY=)
