Gregg Wallace latest: Allegations ‘tip of the iceberg’, ex-MasterChef star claims

A former Celebrity MasterChef contestant has said Gregg Wallace’s reaction to the accusations being made against him shows he has “no insight or understanding of how he behaves”.

Addressing Wallace’s response to the accusations, Scottish TV presenter Aggie MacKenzie told Good Morning Britain: “This illustrates how he just has no insight or understanding of how he behaves. He just doesn’t get it.

“He’s been allowed to carry on in his own sweet way for many, many years.”

A Tory frontbencher has suggested that the BBC must examine how complaints against its stars are dealt with.

Shadow paymaster general Richard Holden told Sky News: “Quite clearly there’s a lot of issues facing the BBC over this. He’s been a star presenter for a number of years, and quite clearly a lot of this stuff’s been mentioned before.

“And so this needs to be properly looked at, not just around his behaviour, but around how things are dealt with when things are mentioned as well.”

Asked whether the BBC should pull its MasterChef Christmas special, Mr Holden said: “This is going to be a decision for them as far as a broader view. I think it’s really important that they look at this.”

Headlines relating to the claims against Gregg Wallace and his remarks that they have come from “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age” were splashed across multiple newspaper front pages today.

The Daily Mirror’s headline reads “DisasterChef” in a story focusing on his “middle-class women” remarks.

The Metro’s headline reads: “Women of a certain rage”, while the Mail claims the BBC was aware of four complaints about Wallace.

The Sun and Telegraph both also focus on the backlash to his remarks, with The Guardian also carrying the story on its front page.

And the Daily Star features “cut out and keep crisis management advice for anyone called Gregg”:

Former MasterChef contestant Aggie Mackenzie claims host Greg Wallace was “allowed to tell smutty jokes” during filming.

Ms Mackenzie, who appeared on the Celebrity version of the show in 2011, told Good Morning Britain on Monday: “The jokes were always smutty, they were endless and he seemed to be allowed to carry on in this way.”

Lucy Leeson has more details:

BBC executive Kate Phillips raised concerns in 2017 that Gregg Wallace’s behaviour was “unacceptable and cannot continue” after former Celebrity MasterChef contestant Aasmah Mir complained about inappropriate comments during filming, the Sunday Times has reported.

In an email forwarded to Ms Phillips in November 2017, Ms Mir wrote: “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.”

The newspaper claimed Wallace then received another warning the following year after a complaint was raised about his behaviour on the quiz show Impossible Celebrities.

A senior Labour MP has demanded that the BBC take MasterChef off air as the scandal around allegations against the celebrity chef presenter Gregg Wallace continues to escalate.

Rupa Huq, the MP for Ealing Central and Acton, told Radio 4’s Today programme that continuing to run the show while Wallace is being investigated “sends the wrong message” and risks damaging the broadcaster’s reputation worldwide.

Ms Huq said: “I understand [Master Chef] is scheduled for 9pm today and it is all over the Christmas schedules but it seems to be not going away from the news. It’s number two on your bulletin.

“I think possibly there is an argument for pausing while this investigation takes its course and maybe not airing it tonight. I mean it could be massively triggering for the women involved – in fact any woman involved in any type of similar incidents.”

“We need the investigation to do its work, but at the same time if it is being dangled on our screens where all this is going on I just think at the moment, maybe pause it.”

Our political editor David Maddox has more details:

Allegations against Gregg Wallace are merely the “tip of the iceberg” in what was a “really quite toxic environment” at MasterChef, a former contestant has claimed.

In remarks to Sky News, the anonymous former contestant alleged that he had been so horrified by the widespread “abuse” of contestants on the show that he considered quitting on his first day – but was too scared to speak out after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

“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 former contestant told Sky News.

He 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.”

“It certainly wasn’t everyone, but there was certainly people from all levels of the organisation,” the ex-contesant said, adding: “It was all men … I don’t think I ever witnessed any of the women taking part in it.”

Wallace stepped back from the cooking show on Thursday as a string of allegations emerged concerning the 60-year-old’s behaviour, including that he had made inappropriate sexual jokes, asked for the phone numbers of female members of production staff, and undressed in front of women.

Over the weekend, reports emerged that the BBC had been made aware of complaints as far back as 2017, while it was claimed that a letter had been sent to the broadcaster in 2022 stating that women had been made to feel “uncomfortable” in his presence.