MasterChef UK host sacked as 50 more people make allegations against him

The BBC is facing questions over its knowledge of Gregg Wallace’s behaviour after 50 more people came forward with allegations against him.

Wallace has been sacked as a presenter on the UK’s version of MasterChef following a report into his conduct on the BBC cooking show, which will be issued later this week.

Gregg Wallace has been sacked as host of UK MasterChef.Credit:

In a statement on Tuesday, he insisted that he was the victim of an “incredible injustice” and would not “go quietly”, adding that he had recently been diagnosed with autism.

A series of new claims alleging sexual misconduct were subsequently published by BBC News. The Telegraph previously revealed that BBC bosses were alerted to complaints about Wallace on at least four different shows over a decade.

The BBC has so far refused to launch an investigation, despite demands to be accountable to its viewers, instead deferring to external production companies.

But the fresh claims will put the BBC under further pressure in the wake of the Glastonbury row which left the BBC director-general, Tim Davie, fighting for his job.

One of the alleged victims to come forward, a junior MasterChef worker known as Sophie, said that Wallace had been protected for too long.

“Gregg’s time has come. But the most senior leadership, who have clearly heard these testimonies over the years and not chosen to remove him sooner, should also resign.

“And both them and the BBC should consider why a presenter being in post is more important than the wellbeing and treatment of the people making the series,” she said.

Sophie alleged that Wallace had groped her while she was standing at a bar with him and his co-host, John Torode, at the 2013 series wrap party, doing it “covertly” so that Torode did not notice.

She did not complain at the time because she feared being “booted off” the MasterChef team.

Another MasterChef crew member, known as Alice, alleged that Wallace invited her into his dressing room in 2012, saying that he needed help getting changed into black tie, then pushed her down onto a sofa and pulled his trousers down.

She reported the “disgusting and predatory” behaviour to the independent production company which made the show, but was allegedly told by a senior member of the production team: “You’re over 16, you’re not being ‘Jimmy Saviled’.”

Allegations spanning decades

The allegations date back to 2002, when a participant on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen – which was at the time produced in-house by the BBC– said that Wallace put a hand on her groin during a pre-show dinner and asked: “Do you like that?”

Gregg Wallace (right) with MasterChef co-host, Australian-born John Torode.Credit:

The Telegraph’s investigation heard from a junior production worker on the show who alleged that Wallace groped her breasts and bottom, but she dared not speak out for fear of losing her job.

She said that Wallace’s conduct appeared to be condoned by senior members of staff who worked on the program. “It was like no one else had a problem with what was happening, so I couldn’t have a problem either,” she said.

While MasterChef in the UK is made by Banijay, an independent production company, it is on the BBC’s list of eight “flagship programmes” which have special status owing to the length of time they have been established and how popular they are with audiences – raising questions of why there was no oversight from BBC management.

The new allegations about Wallace and the findings of the review will pile fresh pressure on Davie, the BBC director-general, who is already facing criticism over his handling of Bob Vylan’s controversial set at Glastonbury.

The BBC is also braced for a highly critical report into its decision to broadcast a Gaza documentary without sufficient checks to establish that the child narrator was the son of a Hamas minister.

Wallace stepped back from MasterChef in November after a number of allegations came to light. He had co-presented the show since 2005.

In a statement ahead of the report’s publication, and anticipating the BBC’s new allegations, Wallace said: “After 21 years of loyal service to the BBC, I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others.”

He claimed that the report will clear him of serious wrongdoing but will find him “primarily guilty of inappropriate language”.

“I recognise that some of my humour and language, at times, was inappropriate. For that, I apologise without reservation,” he said.

He previously admitted to opening his dressing room door and shouting “hooray” while naked except for a sock on his penis, but said this was after the day’s filming had finished.

Wallace hits back at BBC

He hit out at the BBC News allegations, saying: “The BBC is no longer providing balanced and impartial public service journalism. It is peddling baseless and sensationalised gossip masquerading as properly corroborated stories.

“The BBC is choosing to allow BBC News to run with this uncorroborated tittle-tattle in an attempt to ‘get ahead’ of the Silkin summary report and derail what has been an extremely thorough process.

“This feels to me like BBC News is chasing slanderous clickbait rather than delivering impartial journalism.”

The 60-year-old presenter complained that his suspected autism had made the MasterChef studio “a dangerous environment” for him.

He added: “I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges and all. For over two decades, that authenticity was part of the brand. Now, in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem.”

Kirsty Wark, the former Newsnight presenter, claimed that Wallace had told “sexualised” jokes while she was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef in 2011.

Wallace hit back by saying that the complaints were coming from “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age,” a comment for which he later apologised.

He said in his statement that “the most damaging claims including allegations from public figures… have not been upheld [and] were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.”

Wallace also suggested that some of his behaviour was down to autism and criticised bosses for failing to take that into account. “My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef.

“Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over 20 years. That failure is now being quietly buried,” he said.

Wallace suggested that others were guilty of more serious offences than him, but that their behaviour would be brushed under the carpet.

He ended by saying: “I will not go quietly. I will not be cancelled for convenience. I was tried by the media and hung out to dry well before the facts were established. The full story of this incredible injustice must be told and it is very much a matter of public interest.”

A BBC spokesman said: “Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published.”

The Telegraph London

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