THE BBC must pull MasterChef off air until the probe into Gregg Wallace wraps up — or risk telling viewers he “got away with it,” a furious MP has blasted.
Labour’s Rupa Huq called for the broadcaster to act while a misconduct investigation into Wallace continues.
She warned that airing the show could be “massively triggering” for women who have experienced similar incidents.
Ms Huq, who sits on Parliament‘s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, told BBC‘s Radio 4: “It could be massively triggering for the women involved.
“In fact, any woman involved in any type of similar incident.
“To the casual viewer, if it’s on TV tonight, it looks like he got away with it. I think the BBC should send a strong signal.”
A BBC News investigation heard allegations of inappropriate sexual comments and inappropriate behaviour by 13 people who worked with Wallace across a range of shows over a 17-year period.
Wallace has stepped back from production duties while Banijay UK, the external company behind MasterChef, investigates.
But Ms Huq slammed the BBC for relying on the production company instead of stepping up to ensure accountability.
She added: “I don’t think the BBC should hide behind the production company. They should expect high standards from their suppliers… To the average viewer, they don’t know where that programme came from. If you let this programme go out, it sends a signal that it is okay…
“If the BBC pulled the show for now and let the investigation run its course, it would send a strong message that this kind of behavior is not acceptable.”
Ms Huq’s remarks follow a fiery backlash led by Ulrika Jonsson, who slammed Gregg Wallace yesterday after the ex-MasterChef host’s bungled attempt to defend his actions.
Sun writer Ulrika called Wallace, 60, “ignorant and arrogant” after he posted a video blaming “middle-class women of a certain age” for complaining about him.
Other female celebrities stunned at Wallace’s extraordinary rant included JK Rowling and Kirstie Allsopp, who said he once left her mortified with a gross anecdote about a sex act.
Wallace, who left the BBC1 cooking show last week after complaints about inappropriate behaviour over a number of years, lashed out on Instagram yesterday morning.
He said: “Now I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years. Amateur, Celebrity and Professional MasterChef. In that time I’ve worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds and all different walks of life.
“Now I’m reading in the paper that there have been 13 complaints in that time. I can see them coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right. Over 20 years of TV, can you imagine how many women on MasterChef have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo?”
His comments sparked an angry reaction from Ulrika, 57, who had previously accused Wallace of making a rape “joke” on the set of Celebrity MasterChef in 2017.
She said yesterday: “I am nothing short of seething. Somewhere in his misogynistic, thoughtless, ancient mind he felt it appropriate to tell the world this.
“Oh, Gregg. Your ignorance and arrogance knows no bounds. Firstly, you have no clue what ‘class’ of women it is that have made complaints about you.
“What we can ascertain is that they are a shed-load classier than you will ever be.
“Secondly, when you refer to women ‘of a certain age’ that is normally a reference to my generation — Generation X, the older ones, the ones who are supposed to have gone into old age quietly.
“And yet, the irony of this is that we are probably the hardiest bunch out there because we have been brought up on a diet of sexist, misogynistic, crude and sleazy comments and physical contact that was always surplus to requirements by the likes of Wallace, all our working lives.”
Ulrika claimed he reduced a female contestant to tears by saying her dish “looks like a rapist during foreplay”.
And she yesterday slammed the BBC for letting him stay on TV for so long.
She said: “However much the BBC considered this ‘cheeky chappy’ to be popular with the public because of his simplicity, it is just not good enough to brush off any complaints with the excuse that ‘it’s just how Gregg is’.”
It comes after MasterChef producers Banijay UK drafted in legal firm Lewis Silkin to investigate the allegations.
Wallace was also yesterday accused of further acts of inappropriate behaviour.
THE BBC was warned about Gregg Wallace’s sexist behaviour at least five times over seven years but he carried on presenting MasterChef, it has emerged.
The broadcaster carried out an HR investigation in 2018 and spoke to the star multiple times about inappropriate comments.
Celebrity MasterChef 2012 winner Emma Kennedy said she reported Wallace’s behaviour to a member of the production team but did not know if it was taken any further.
Georgia Harding, a MasterChef producer from 2014-15, said she raised concerns about his behaviour but nothing was done.
In 2017, radio broadcaster Aasmah Mir went on the celebrity version and sent an email to Kate Phillips, now head of unscripted TV for the BBC, about Wallace’s inappropriate comments.
In 2018, Wallace was reportedly issued with a formal warning by the BBC following an HR probe.
In 2022, director and producer Dawn Elrick said she sent a letter to the corporation with a number of anonymised accounts from people alleging Wallace acted inappropriately.
Yesterday The Sun on Sunday told how a Nestlé executive had written to the BBC with concerns about Wallace’s behaviour while filming a 2023 episode of Inside The Factory.
The BBC was criticised for failing to act on complaints made against convicted paedophile Huw Edwards.
It has faced a Strictly bullying row, sex allegations about comic Russell Brand, plus The One Show Jermaine Jenas’s inappropriate messages.
The BBC has 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.”
A BBC source added: “While we are not going to comment on individuals or any internal HR processes, it would be wrong to report the BBC has done nothing if or when matters have been raised with us.”
