Lucy Beaumont Sparks Debate Over UK Age of Consent Laws

Updated 11:29 12 Nov 2026 GMTPublished 11:04 12 Nov 2026 GMT

Beaumont previously said she was worried she'd lose her career after admitting to being a whistleblower in the David Walliams investigation

Lucy Beaumont has shared a post on Instagram calling for the age of consent laws in the UK to change, presenting an 'insane' scenario in which it would be legal for someone who is still legally considered a child to have sex with a man in their 60s.

She's backed a campaign group which wants to change the law to criminalise anyone aged 20 or over having sex with a 16-year-old, and anyone aged 21 or over having sex with a 17-year-old.

She wrote on Instagram: "If you have a 12-year-old daughter, in four years time a man in his 60s can legally have sex with her. It's hard for me to write this and I'm sure for the majority of us it's hard for us to read it.

“But we have to. He is not a criminal. We can't prosecute him.

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“BUT the insanity of it .. the law agrees with us; she's still thought of as a child.

“He can't legally buy her a drink and he can't have a nude image of her. But he can sleep with her.

“And f**k her life up.”

"Who is the law protecting? #closetheagegap."

She also shared a second post which supported the Close the Consent Age Gap Campaign.

The group want to change the law to make it a criminal offence for anyone aged 20 or over to have sex with teenagers aged 16 or 17, unless the age gap is no more than three years.

They write on their website: "We are not trying to criminalise teenage relationships. We are trying to stop grown adults having legal sexual access to children."

Beaumont made headlines earlier this week for revealing herself to be one of the whistleblowers who raised concerns about David Walliams after a three-year investigation by The Guardian and ITV News accused him of sexual misconduct involving young women.

Walliams denies these allegations and any suggestions of criminality in their report, releasing a statement in which he said: "I am not a sexual predator."

Walliams was alleged to have engaged in sexual contact with a 15-year-old in ITN and The Guardian's investigation. He denies these allegations (Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

The comedian appeared on Sky News, where she claimed that a young staff member on a TV show she was working on came to her to inform her that Walliams was allegedly bringing young women, who were 'definitely' over the age of 16, into his dressing room. She believed they were 'vulnerable'.

Beaumont added that she had never witnessed any poor behaviour from Walliams, but added that she believed that there needed to be a major change in safeguarding on TV shows.

She said: "I did as much as I could do privately.

“Whenever I’ve heard a rumour about anyone, I’ve done everything I can.

“There’s only so much you can do. I’m not the police. Nothing seems to be illegal."

She continued: “People are saying, ‘why tell journalists?’ There’s no HR department in TV. There’s no proper duty of care.

“There’s no social services that you deal with and it’s partly because the industry is very well-managed.

“These things slip through the net because, I think there will be now, but there hasn’t been a process that you can deal with."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.

Featured Image Credit: Sky News

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, UK News