REMEMBERING: Dan Wootton sacked by MailOnline a day after GB News suspension

 

Dan Wootton's contract as MailOnline columnist terminated

MailOnline terminated the contract of columnist Dan Wootton after he made offensive remarks about a journalist on his GB News show.

Wootton has also been suspended from his role at GB News as the broadcaster investigates his remarks.

DMG Media confirmed that Wootton's freelance column with MailOnline has been terminated along with his contract.

 

Dan Wootton sacked by MailOnline a day after GB News suspension

 

Journalist’s column and contract terminated after comments made by Laurence Fox on his GB News show

 

Jim Waterson Media editor

@jimwaterson

Thu 28 Sep 2023 14.40 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/28/mailonline-terminates-dan-wootton-contract-daily-mail

 

Dan Wootton has been sacked by MailOnline the day after he was suspended by GB News for his part in an on-air discussion with actor Laurence Fox about a female journalist.

 

The TV anchor has been suspended from his lucrative MailOnline column since the summer over accusations he used the pseudonym “Martin Branning” to send sexually explicit messages to former colleagues. GB News declined to investigate these claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour against one of their star presenters, arguing they were alleged to have happened at a former employer.

 

As a result Wootton continued presenting his primetime nightly show on GB News until this week, when he was suspended over his role in a discussion with Fox about the appearance of a female journalist.

 

MailOnline has now ended Wootton’s contract, which was understood to give the journalist a six-figure salary in return for two columns a week.

 

A spokesperson for DMG Media, the parent company of MailOnline, said: “Following events this week, DMG Media can confirm that Dan Wootton’s freelance column with MailOnline – which had already been paused – has now been terminated, along with his contract.”

 

The media regulator Ofcom has also opened an investigation into Wootton’s exchange with Fox, after receiving more than 7,000 complaints in 24 hours that the channel may have breached the broadcasting code.

 

Wootton is still facing another investigation by his former employers at News UK, the parent company of the Sun, over claims he pretended to be a person called “Martin Branning” in order to solicit sexual images from his then-colleagues. The company has called in an external legal firm, Kingsley Napley, to investigate allegations against Wootton, who was one of the country’s most powerful celebrity journalists for much of the 2010s.

 

That investigation is ongoing, with lawyers interviewing Wootton’s current and former colleagues.

 

Wootton has continually denied sending sexual messages to his former colleagues, responding to the allegations on his GB News show by saying “dark forces” were trying to bring him down with a “smear campaign”.

 

He admitted making unspecified mistakes in the past but denied any criminal wrongdoing and has since claimed he is being unfairly targeted for having “political views that challenge the orthodoxy”.

 

He told GB News viewers he would “like nothing more than to address those spurious claims” but “on the advice of my lawyers I cannot comment further”.

 

Despite Wootton’s denials that he was Martin Branning, a number of people who knew him have come forward to accuse him including his former boyfriend Alex Truby and a model called Andy Lee.

 

Lee, a performer on the subscriber website OnlyFans, told the Guardian he met “Branning” in person in 2013 – and later realised he had actually met Wootton.

 

At first Lee did not think there was anything odd about the encounter, saying: “I was always under the impression he was Martin Branning.”

 

This apparently changed soon afterwards, when Lee claimed he was followed on Twitter by a journalist called Dan Wootton. Lee said he was shocked because the profile picture on Wootton’s account was the face of the “Martin Branning” he met.

 

Wootton has neither confirmed nor denied that he used the Martin Branning pseudonym and an associated email address. He set up a crowdfunder to fight the accusations against him, which raised more than £30,000, but that has now been deleted.

 

His lawyer previously said: “For the avoidance of further doubt, our client did not at any time contact current or former colleagues at the Sun with offers of money in return for sexually explicit images, he did not engage in inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.”

 

Wootton has been approached for comment.