- Comedian Lucy Beaumont has publicly backed the Close The Consent Gap Campaign, criticising UK consent laws that legally permit adults of any age to have sex with 16- and 17-year-olds.
- Beaumont disclosed that she acted as a whistleblower in a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News into TV personality David Walliams after raising concerns about his reported conduct towards young women.
- The investigation published allegations from several women accusing Walliams of grooming and sexual assault when they were teenagers, which emerged after Walliams failed to secure an injunction to block reporting.
- Highlighting what she termed the “insanity” of the law, Beaumont noted that adults can legally sleep with a 16-year-old despite it remaining illegal to buy them alcohol or possess nude images of them. Beaumont received praise for her Instagram post from comedian Alan Carr, who responded with a series of hand-clapping emojis, while TV personality Vicky Pattison branded her “a hero”.
- Walliams has strongly denied any wrongdoing or illegal conduct, stating he is not a sexual predator and had never abused his power, though he acknowledged behaving “thoughtlessly” in past casual relationships.
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