Sir Keir Starmer believes Gregg Wallace was ‘completely inappropriate and misogynistic’ for blaming ‘middle class women of a certain’ age for his MasterChef ruination.
Downing Street also revealed that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has spoken to the BBC about the Wallace scandal ‘to seek assurances’ that the corporation ‘is taking the matter seriously’.
Wallace faces a number of allegations of making ‘inappropriate sexual jokes’, asking for the phone numbers of female members of production staff, and undressing in front of and standing ‘too close’ to women working on his shows. He allegedly walked naked on set with only a sock on his penis.
It came as MailOnline revealed that Gregg Wallace has ‘gone rogue’, is ignoring ‘all advice’ and only ‘listening to his own ego’ after his Instagram video rant yesterday.
And speaking this afternoon the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘Clearly the comments that we’ve seen from the individual over the weekend were completely inappropriate, misogynistic’.
They went on: ‘As we said last week these allegations are obviously deeply concerning.
‘It is right that a thorough investigation is conducted. Obviously that’s for the BBC and the production company. But I would add the Culture Secretary spoke with the BBC leadership at the end of last week on this matter and wider workplace culture issues to seek assurances there are robust processes in place to deal with complaints’.
The grocer turned broadcaster, 60, posted a series of incendiary videos online yesterday where he hit back at critics by saying: ‘Can you imagine how many women on MasterChef, female contestants, have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo?’
His posts have been branded ‘shocking’ and laced with ‘thinly veiled misogyny’ – and did not touch on the sexual allegations made by numerous MasterChef celebrities, producers and contestants on the show he left last week. There are allegations related to four other shows he worked on.
One insider told MailOnline today: ‘Gregg has gone rogue and ignored all advice’. Another expert said: ‘He needs to shut up’.
In an Instagram video, Wallace had said: ‘I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years, amateur, celebrity and professional MasterChef, and I think, in that time, I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life.
‘Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time. I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right’.
Gregg Wallace stepped down from MasterChef amid a probe into his behaviour. Yesterday he lashed out at ‘middle-class women of a certain age’ in a rant on his Instagram story
Wallace on MasterChef with co-host John Torode, who is yet to comment on his departure
As he fights for his TV career, it also emerged today:
- BBC One should pull MasterChef off air until the probe into Gregg Wallace is completed, a senior Labour MP has said;
- The BBC allowed Wallace to remain on air despite at least four complaints being made against him. Bosses are under pressure to explain why they did not act sooner;
- More celebrities speak of how his sex-related comments embarrassed them. One cab driver claims he almost threw star out of his taxi after he got in and asked: ‘Can I ask you what your sex life between you and your wife is like?’
Mark Borkowski, one of the UK’s leading PR gurus and crisis managers, told MailOnline today that Gregg is ‘only listening to his own ego’ – not advice – meaning his video about middle class women complaining is likely to end his TV career.
‘The first law of PR in a crisis is never let your emotions rule your Instagram’, he said. ‘The PR playbook his ego is referencing was written at the same time as Mrs Beeton was writing her cook books’.
‘What Wallace seems to have catastrophically miscalculated is the seismic shift in workplace norms. Studios, like most workplaces today, are hypersensitive ecosystems. The top-tier talent is expected to lead with grace, setting an example for both on-screen colleagues and off-screen crew. ‘Bawdy’ humour and inappropriate antics, once passed off as harmless personality quirks, now read as tone-deaf at best and career-ending at worst.
‘The issue here isn’t just about bad jokes or offensive behaviour; it’s about a profound misunderstanding of evolving power dynamics’.
There are 13 people, including Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, who have formally complained about Wallace’s behaviour over a 17-year period across five shows, from 2005 to 2022.
His lawyers say ‘it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature’.
But in another setback for Wallace and MasterChef bosses, a former contestant shared their experience on the show, telling Sky News: ‘I was horrified. I’d never seen anything like it, genuinely, I was really quite shocked at that really toxic environment.
‘What I witnessed… as a contestant was that there was a systemic problem that was larger than just him, in my view.
‘Gregg… would occasionally crack jokes that in different ways felt inappropriate but he wasn’t the only one.’
The contestant, who alleged the ‘abuse’ on the show went further than Wallace, added: ‘I think it’s good that these things are coming out and I’m glad that people are speaking up, it’s brilliant. But I do think it’s the tip of the iceberg.
‘I think if you were to really unravel and look at what was going on in that culture at large you’d see a lot more, you know, abuse.’
The contestant told Sky News they regret not leaving on the first day, but that they felt too embarrassed to walk away.
They said the only way they felt they could leave was by cooking something awful and being thrown off – but they did not follow through with this because their pride got the better of them.
The contestant shared how offensive language was routinely used by camera crews and producers but that Wallace was the ‘least offensive’.
He also claimed that he heard inappropriate comments being made to another contestant.
Former Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, right, is among 13 people who have accused MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace, left, of making inappropriate sexual comments
Social media users took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to make fun of his post as they joked about his lawyers and PR firm’s reaction to the video
Comedian David Baddiel joked: ‘It’s not often that the internet gets behind middle-class, middle-aged women these days, but thanks to Gregg Wallace for making it happen.’
The whistleblower claims that contestants were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements, forbidding them from speaking about ‘anything that goes on’.
They said that they had seen ‘too much behind the scenes’ to be able to watch the programme anymore. And they also remember wondering if the BBC were aware of what was going on or if that was just how the industry operated.
A BBC source said: ‘While we are not going to comment on individuals or any internal processes, particularly when there is an ongoing process in place being run by Banijay who have the direct contractual relationship with Gregg Wallace, it would be wrong to report the BBC has done nothing if or when matters have been raised with us – not least because it is already being widely reported there were interventions in both 2017 and 2018 where action was taken.
‘We continue to urge caution about pre-judging any of this, particularly the involvement of BBC staff members and any inference they have not acted appropriately.’
It comes after Wallace fanned the flames by claiming accusations about him making sexual comments towards staff and guests have come from ‘middle-class women of a certain age‘.
In a post on Instagram on Sunday, the 60-year-old said: ‘I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years, amateur, celebrity and professional MasterChef, and I think, in that time, I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life.
‘Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time.
‘I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef.
The BBC has said it is taking the issues raised about Wallace ‘seriously’ after he stepped down from the programme
‘This isn’t right.
‘In 20 years, over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks, or sexual innuendo? Can you imagine?’
In a third video, Wallace claimed ‘absolutely none’ of the people he had worked with on his shows had made a complaint about him.
The Sunday Times reported that BBC executive Kate Phillips raised concerns Wallace’s behaviour was ‘unacceptable and cannot continue‘.
The intervention came after broadcaster and former Celebrity MasterChef contestant Aasmah Mir, said she complained about inappropriate comments during filming when she appeared on the show in 2017.
In an email forwarded to Ms Phillips in November 2017, Ms Mir said: ‘Should anything happen in the future, I don’t want to feel guilty when people say, ‘Why wasn’t anything said before?’, or for producers or editors to claim they didn’t know.’
Ms Mir, who presents the breakfast show on Times Radio, later wrote in an email that was copied to Ms Phillips: ‘This must not happen again to another woman.’
In a post on X, she described a moment on the show which led to her complaint. While waiting for cameras to reshoot a scene, she claims Wallace said to ‘tell a colleague at the BBC ‘that she was a sexy b****”.
Ms Mir claims that no one did anything despite it being said ‘in front of everyone’ which is why she complained.
She added: ‘I left the competition first. But two female contestants including Ulrika Jonsson told me afterwards that he had told another contestant that the way she was handling fish ‘looked like a rapist doing foreplay.”
The newspaper claimed he received another warning the following year after a complaint was raised about his behaviour on the quiz show Impossible Celebrities.
The Sunday Telegraph reported producer Georgia Harding, who worked on MasterChef between 2014 and 2015 and later Eat Well For Less, claimed she raised concerns about ‘inappropriate’ behaviour from him while working on the show.
She alleged the presenter undressed in front of colleagues and ‘made inappropriate sexual jokes’ in front of the crew and people appearing on the shows, and said ‘nothing was done’ about concerns raised, claiming there was ‘an acceptance’ of his behaviour and ‘nothing was done’.
Harding also said he stood ‘too close’ to contestants on set and ‘spoke about sex a lot and would get changed on set even though he had a changing room’.
Meanwhile TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp also claimed Wallace made an inappropriate sexual joke to her.
She wrote on X: ‘Within 1hr of meeting Gregg Wallace he told me of a sex act that he & his partner at the time enjoyed ‘every morning’, she’d just left the room, we were filming a pilot. Did he get off on how embarrassed I was? It was totally unprofessional.’
She added: ‘Why say nothing? Because you feel, in no particular order, embarrassed, a prude, shocked, waiting for a male colleague to call him out, not wanting to ‘rock the boat’, thinking it’s better to plough on with the day, assuming you misheard/misunderstood or just don’t get the joke.’
Former Celebrity MasterChef star Emma Kennedy, who won the 2012 series, has said she never saw Wallace as a ‘sexual predator’, but did witness ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
Speaking to Times Radio, she said: ‘I went into the studio and it was me and Gregg and the photographer’s assistant and the photographer’s assistant was a young woman, very attractive young woman, and she was bending over dealing with some equipment.
‘And as she was bending over, Gregg in front of me went and put his hands over her buttocks and then turned to me and went core and then was laughing as if this was a great joke.’
When asked to confirm that Wallace’s hands were on the young woman’s bottom, she continued: ‘I think I, now the angle that I was at, I cannot say for 100% but she did instantly react, so I do believe that he touched her. Yes.
‘It was like a combination of things. I think initially I was just agog that he felt comfortable enough to do that to a woman in front of another woman. But I think, and I am going to make this distinction, I don’t think he did it as an act of sexual aggression. I think he did it because he thought it was funny.’
She continued: ‘And I can only speak about my experience with Gregg and although I saw quite a lot of inappropriate behaviour, I never sort of felt, ‘Okay you’re a sexual predator” I never thought he was evil. But what I did think, but what I did think was that he just doesn’t understand that some behaviour is completely inappropriate.
‘And I said to him at the time, you can’t do that stuff, Gregg. And it sort of went in one ear and out the other I think.’
An anonymous woman who appeared on Eat Well For Less also claimed that Wallace stood ‘too close’ to her, made ‘inappropriate’ sexual comments, and said Wallace asked why guests were not laughing at his jokes, and told them they should because he was the ‘talent’.
Wallace has been mocked on social media for blaming ‘middle class women of a certain age’.
Some said Greg Wallace has ‘done himself no favours’ and ‘made things worse’ for himself by taking aim at the 13 women who have made a complaint, while others accused him of a ‘blatantly misogynistic response’ to complaints about his allegedly sexist behaviour.
Many people took to ‘X’, formerly known as Twitter, to make fun of his post as they joked about his lawyers and PR firm’s reaction to the video.
One post read: ‘Whichever PR firm advised Gregg Wallace to take on ‘middle-class women of a certain age’ clearly hate him as well.’
Bosses at the corporation are said to have hauled the MasterChef co-host into a meeting in 2018 following allegations of ‘inappropriate sexual comments’ and told him to ‘change his behaviour’
Another featured a meme of Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation hammering his mobile phone with the caption: ‘Gregg Wallace’s lawyers driving to his house right now to remove his phone and laptop.’
Radio presenter Julie Hartley-Brewer wrote: ‘Spare a thought for Gregg Wallace’s PR agent waking up this morning,’ with a meme of Chandler from Friends shouting ‘What did you just do?’
Comedian David Baddiel joked: ‘It’s not often that the internet gets behind middle-class, middle-aged women these days, but thanks to Gregg Wallace for making it happen.’
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘We take any issues that are raised with us seriously and we have robust processes in place to deal with them. We are always clear that any behaviour which falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated.
‘Where an individual is contracted directly by an external production company we share any complaints or concerns with that company and we will always support them when addressing them.
‘It would be inappropriate for us to comment on anything that could form part of Banijay’s ongoing investigation or otherwise influence it.’
Banijay UK, the show’s production company, said the complaints were made to the BBC this week by ‘individuals in relation to historical allegations of misconduct while working with Gregg Wallace on one of our shows’.
The company said Wallace was ‘committed to fully co-operating throughout the process’.
‘Whilst these complainants have not raised the allegations directly with our show producers or parent company Banijay UK, we feel that it is appropriate to conduct an immediate, external review to fully and impartially investigate,’ the company said.
‘While this review is under way, Gregg Wallace will be stepping away from his role on MasterChef and is committed to fully co-operating throughout the process.
‘Banijay UK’s duty of care to staff is always a priority and our expectations regarding behaviour are made clear to both cast and crew on all productions, with multiple ways of raising concerns, including anonymously, clearly promoted on set.
‘Whilst these are historical allegations, incidences brought to our attention where these expectations are not met, are thoroughly investigated and addressed appropriately.’
MailOnline has contacted Wallace’s representatives for comment.