Laurence Fox: Actor accuses Met Police ‘thugs’ of ‘harassment’ after officers visited his home

Laurence Fox has accused Metropolitan Police ‘thugs’ of harassing him and making his children cry after officers visited his home yesterday for the second time in two months.

The actor, who lost his £10,000 deposit after coming sixth in the London mayoral elections at the weekend, told MailOnline that officers rocked up at his home over reports of a party. 

Fox insisted he only had his father, actor James Fox, round for dinner – though it is not clear if the gathering was indoor or outdoor. Current lockdown laws prohibit members of different households from gathering indoors unless a person lives on their own until May 17, when further restrictions are lifted. 

On Twitter, the anti-woke Reclaim Party branded the force ‘thugs’ and told Scotland Yard to ‘stop harassing my house and my children yet AGAIN’, adding: ‘It makes them [his children] cry’. MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police for further information.

He also swiped: ‘Go solve knife crime’ – a nod to what he described to MailOnline as the ‘absolutely horrendous’ epidemic of stabbings in London which has rocketed under Mayor Sadiq Khan’s watch and sparked fears of further gang violence as the national lockdown is eased.

Fox was previously visited by Met Police officers in March ahead of the City Hall elections, who warned him that his campaigning could be in breach of coronavirus restrictions. 

In a video of the March exchange shared by Fox online, the police said he had been reported for breaking rules while campaigning. 

However, they admitted that they had ‘no evidence per se’ to support the complaint.

Fox, who launched the anti-woke Reclaim party to fight the ‘culture wars’, slammed the Met’s ‘mild intimidation’ and revealed he was taking legal advice.

Speaking to MailOnline, the actor accused the force of investigating a ‘non-crime’ and said he has ‘lots of questions’ for Scotland Yard.  

‘I actually felt quite sorry for the police officer I filmed,’ Fox said. ‘He clearly didn’t know why he was there. No one did.

‘The police have been put in an impossible position, enforcing these sorts of rules and investigating non-crimes reported by anonymous snitches.

‘I am in the process of consulting legal advice on the incident. We have lots of questions for the Met over what happened and why.’ 

Fox called the incident ‘a very worrying thing in a democratic society’, adding: ‘We do not live in North Korea or China. We live in Great Britain.’ 

The actor was dropped by his agent after he defended the British Press against charges of racism against Meghan Markle on Question Time last year.

‘I’m quite used to being intimidated, but that’s not my concern,’ he said. ‘I don’t want anybody in London or the UK to be investigated for non-crimes.’ 

Yesterday Fox insisted that he will ‘march on’ after his London Mayoral defeat despite coming in sixth and racking up fewer votes than a YouTuber whose policies included ‘shushing’ Prime Minister Boris Johnson.  

The actor lost his £10,000 deposit after winning just 1.8 per cent of the vote, compared with Sadiq Khan’s 55 per cent. He lost to YouTuber Niko Omilana, but beat mayoral rivals Count Binface and Piers Corbyn.

Despite his election defeat, a source close to Fox struck an optimistic note and told MailOnline last night the Lewis star would continue to ‘march on’ and ‘stand up and speak common sense to nonsense’. 

A senior source added: ‘Reclaim is a long-term project, London was fun but it’s a very different demographic to the rest of the country.’ 

Fox said on Twitter after the results were announced: ‘Thank you so much to the 47,634 of you who voted for me. I am profoundly moved. Sleep well.’ 

Earlier, Fox was seen chatting to mayoral rival Count Binface, who received 24,775 votes and finished ninth, above Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers.

During the interaction shared on social media, Fox asked to touch his opponent’s face and said he was feeling ‘pretty chipper’ about his prospects. 

In his speech in front of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square in London, he 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.

‘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. 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 said would bankrupt the network

Khan won a second term as mayor but with his majority hammered by Tory Shaun Bailey – and vowed to work to build bridges with Boris Johnson’s government.

The Labour incumbent will serve a truncated new three-year term after winning the election that was postponed from last year due to the pandemic.

Khan polled 1,206,034 votes to Bailey’s 977, 601, a majority of 228,433. With second preference votes included Khan won 55 per cent of the vote, down from 57 per cent in 2016.  

In a sign that will please the Tories, Khan’s lead over Bailey is narrower than the 14-point win he achieved over Tory Zac Goldsmith in 2016. 

However, it may raise questions about how well the Tories could have done if they had put more effort into supporting Bailey. 

Boris Johnson and his most senior ministers were noticeable by their lack of appearances with him during his campaign, while making repeated visits to Hartlepool and other targets.

In a speech from City Hall, Bailey said: ‘As I went through these, for me what was two years of campaigning, one feeling felt familiar to me, one challenge had always felt the same.

‘And that was the feeling of being written off – by pollsters, by journalists, by fellow politicians. But it’s no surprise to me that Londoners didn’t write me off.’ 

Khan said he had been handed an ‘overwhelming mandate’. He won around 40 per cent of first preference votes.   

Bailey focused his campaign on the spiraling knife crime in the capital, trying to paint Khan as weak on law and order.

And congratulating the winner, Bailey told him: ‘I hope you take this opportunity to focus on the fact that people who look like me are four times as likely to be murdered than people who look like you.’   

Khan pledged to build a ‘better and brighter future’ for the capital following the coronavirus pandemic in his victory speech from City Hall.

‘I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart,’ he said.

‘I am deeply humbled by the trust Londoners have placed in me to continue leading the greatest city on earth.

‘I promise to strain every sinew, help build a better and brighter future for London, after the dark days of the pandemic and to create a greener, fairer and safer city for all Londoners, to get the opportunities they need to fulfil their potential.

‘It’s in this spirit that I promise to lead London over the next three years, building bridges between the different communities in our city, building bridges across cultural, social and class divides.

‘Building bridges between London and the rest of the country to ensure London can play its part in a national recovery.

‘And building bridges between City Hall and the Government.

‘Because we must all work together to build a brighter, greener and more equal future for London, and for our entire country, after the pandemic. 

‘I am proud to have won an overwhelming mandate today.’

In a surprise result the Greens’ Sian Berry came third ahead of the Liberal Democrats’ Luisa Porritt. Only the top three candidates won enough votes to keep their deposit.

Those losing out include the Reform Party’s Laurence Fox and Count Binface – who won more votes than Piers Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy.  

Candidates need five per cent of first-preference votes to get back their deposits, which only three candidates surpassed. 

Responding to the re-election of Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London, the leader of the London Assembly Labour group, Len Duvall, said: ‘Covid has impacted on every element of Londoners’ lives, and it’s certainly had an impact on this year’s elections. 

‘We’ve worked hard to respond to Londoners’ needs, but we’ve really got to have our listening ears on going forward and regain the trust of some Londoners.

‘We know Sadiq Khan has a good record, that is very clear. When it comes to cleaning up London’s toxic air, providing social housing, and getting tough on violent crime and its causes, Sadiq has provided the leadership the capital needs. 

‘He will continue to produce practical solutions to the challenges we face.

‘Covid has meant that the challenges will only grow. We need the Mayor to hit the ground running when it comes to London’s recovery, delivering jobs, and making London safer. It’ll be our job on the Assembly to hold him to account and ensure those pledges are delivered upon.’

Labour sources had earlier refused to become too optimistic given how close the race was amid a national picture in England which has seen the Tories make large gains.