Laurence Fox attends the Walpole British Luxury Awards 2019 at The Dorchester on November 18, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Walpole)

Actor Laurence Fox has said he refuses to date women under 35 due to their politically correct views, and admits he once dumped a girlfriend for being “too woke”.

Fox has been embroiled in controversy since appearing on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday, when he accused an audience member - later revealed to be a university lecturer and race and ethnicity researcher - of being “racist” for suggesting he was a privileged white male.

The debate, which was initially about Meghan Markle being subjected to racism at the hands of the British press, has divided public opinion, with some condemning Fox’s stance and others defending him.

Read more: Laurence Fox dismisses criticism after Meghan ‘racism’ debate on Question Time

But Fox, known for playing Sergeant Hathaway in ITV’s Lewis, has insisted there is nothing controversial about his opinions, which it would now appear also impact on his love life.

Appearing on the Delingpod podcast, he told writer and host James Delingpole about ending a relationship with a woman whose views differed from his own.

He said there were two incidents which had set alarm bells ringing.

One was his partner’s support of Christine Blasey Ford, who in 2018 accused then-US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her while they were in high school in 1982, claims that Kavanaugh denied.

Fox was urged to “believe the victim” by the unnamed woman. He responded: “No, you don’t believe the victim. That’s not how it works. You listen to the victim. The victim’s evidence is examined and a jury of their peers makes that decision.”

He said he finally decided to end the relationship when she praised a Gillette advert that targeted “toxic masculinity”.

The controversial ad showed images of sexual harassment, sexist behaviour and general aggressive male behaviour alongside the tagline: “Is this the best a man can get?”

The 41-year-old told Delingpole: “I don’t know how we ended up together. It was a very short relationship. We were walking down the road and she was talking about how good the Gillette advert was. I just looked at her and went, ‘Bye. Sorry, I can’t do this with you.’”

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He added: “You know when a woman starts speaking to you like that you need to run. She’s literally giving you two very strong hints that she’s about to make your life miserable.

“She had been primed. This is the problem if you are priming women to believe they are victims and that this is a tyrannical patriarchy. It’s not like they’ve got a solution for that. They just want a matriarchy. Exactly the same, just the women in charge. And it’s just like, no, sorry.”

He went on to say his age cut-off for potential girlfriends is now 35, as anyone younger is likely to be “absolutely bonkers” and to consider themselves “oppressed by men” believing the world to be “a terrible place”.