Laurence Fox defends comments on Sikh troops after receiving death threats in wake of Question Time backlash

Following his controversial appearance on Question Time, Laurence Fox says people 'shouldn't be terrified to say how they feel' after he received backlash for a string of divisive comments.

Laurence Fox has defended his controversial comments surrounding the inclusion of a Sikh soldier in the Sam Mendes directed film, 1917.

The actor had said the inclusion of the character was 'incongruous' in an interview with James Delingpole, despite the fact millions of Sikh troops fought side by side with British soldiers.

When asked by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about his comments, Fox replied: "I’m not a historian I don’t know."

“I think there were a lot of soldiers from the former empire fighting in World War One. I suppose it would have been less incongruous to me if he had got on the truck to a whole regiment of Sikh soldiers.”

Piers later asked if he had any regrets over the "unfortunate" comments which sparked a huge backlash.

"Do you regret saying that?" Piers asked, adding: "Because out of all of the things you've said in the last two weeks - I've been cheering you on right until that point - but I was like that to me, I didn't really get what you were getting at.

"I felt like it was sort of insulting, actually, to Sikh soldiers who had served. Many, many hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers who served in World War One. It felt to me as though it was an unfortunate thing to have said."

Elsewhere, Laurence defended his string of controversial comments, adding: "As you've noticed, I've said quite a lot of unfortunate things but I think its really important that one is able to express those opinions - and for that opinion to be attacked with bad ideas and better ideas but I think people shouldn't feel terrified to say what they feel."

The actor also revealed he has been receiving death threats in recent days after calling "woke" people "fundamentally racist".

He told Piers and Susanna: "I've got a small bout of hopefully temporary insomnia...I've had death threats and I have children."

But he said he "100 per cent stand[s] by" the comments he had made, saying: "What is most important is we seek out incidents of racism and join together to condemn them."