On Friday, 13th March, Actors union Equity’s entire Race Equality Committee had resigned in protest after the company issued an apology to Laurence Fox. The resignations follow after the company apologised to Fox for criticising his views on race and reached an out-of-court settlement with the actor after he threatened to sue them for libel.
The former star of the detective drama Lewis had appeared on BBC Question Time where he had said that media criticism of Meghan Markle was not rooted in racism. He then further got into a confrontational discussion with a member of the audience where he insisted that it was “racist” for an audience member to call him “a white, privileged male”.
The union had previously branded Fox a ‘disgrace’ over his comments on Question Time. Now, the Equity has issued a formal apology stating,
“We are sorry that in the tweets he was called a ‘disgrace’ by Equity. It was a mistake for Equity as an organisation to criticise him in this way. Nothing in Equity’s later statement was intended as a slur on his character or views, or to suggest that he should be denied the ability to work. We would like to make that clear. Equity and Laurence Fox condemn prejudice unequivocally in all its forms.”
Follwing Equity’s apology on Twitter, the entire committee resigned, tweeting,
“It is with deep regret that, following @EquityUK’s statement this morning, all members of Equity’s recently renamed Race Equality Committee (formerly the Equity Minority Ethnic Members Committee) feel we have no choice but to resign as committee members.”
The committee included prominent names such as Irvine Iqbal, Jassa Ahluwalia, Miriam Babooram, Rebecca Boey, Julie Cheung-Inhin, Matt Lim, Debra Tidd and Nana St Bartholomew-Brown. Actor Irvine Iqbal said,
“I am stepping down as Equity’s committee member. It is very sad that our union fails to support us. I am honoured to have worked with a group of committed and hard working people led by the distinguished Daniel York Loh, the former chair of the race equality committee.”
In the meantime, Fox himself responded to these resignations by tweeting,
“Hopefully this might an opportunity for us to continue to celebrate diversity in all its forms. Including diversity of opinion. @EquityUK@EquityREC.”
