Gregg Wallace live: MasterChef host faces new claims of ‘groping’ as BBC urged to pull show immediately

The BBC is facing more calls to pause broadcasting of MasterChef as more allegations against Gregg Wallace are made.

Labour MP Rachel Taylor told BBC Radio 4: “I for one don’t want to be watching a sex pests fawning over fancy food around my Christmas time. I want to see action taken to protect women in the workplace.”

“I don’t think it should be on our screens for a number of reasons. It’s a slap in the face to those women who have been affected by this behaviour.”

She went on to say she believes the show should be pulled off air until the investigation into Wallace’s behaviour has concluded.

Last Thursday, it was announced that Wallace would be stepping away from hit BBC cooking show MasterChef while historical misconduct complaints are externally reviewed by the producer Banijay UK.

A spokesperson from the production company said: “Banijay UK takes this matter incredibly seriously but while the external investigation is ongoing, we won’t be commenting on individual allegations.

“It is important to note, that MasterChef welfare processes are regularly adapted and strengthened, and there are clear protocols to support both crew and contributors.

“These include multiple ways of reporting issues, including anonymously. HR contact details are promoted and contributors are assigned a point of contact on set available to discuss any issues or concerns.”

TV star Gregg Wallace, who stepped back from presenting BBC MasterChef last week, is facing fresh allegations of inappropriately touching women.

One woman said he touched her bottom after an event and another said he pressed his crotch against her while filming on a different show, according to BBC News.

Banijay UK, which produces MasterChef, previously said Wallace is “committed to fully co-operating” with the external review while his lawyers have previously strongly denied “he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”, according to BBC News.

BBC News reported that Wallace allegedly pressed his crotch against the bottom of a woman working on the BBC show Eat Well For Less during filming in a supermarket in 2015 and that he allegedly touched the bottom of another woman during a group hug in a lift in 2022.

The allegations against the ‘MasterChef’ presenter show that if you are important enough and powerful enough your transgressions will often be overlooked. It’s time for that to change, writes Eleanor Mills:

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Stephen Fry has said men in television must consider who may be the “victim or stereotype” at the root of their “light banter” after Gregg Wallace apologised for his response to complaints made about his behaviour.

Fry told Sky News Breakfast on Tuesday: “I think if, by now, people who work in television, men who work in television, don’t understand that light banter is no longer something that can be aired in ways unless they think hard about, is there a sort of victim or a stereotype at the root of this banter who might be hurt.

“And it’s just good manners, really. Good manners have changed. In Victorian times, certain things couldn’t be referred to or seen and it was only polite to obey this because people were shocked and upset if things were not respected that they respect.

“And so I think we’ve all just got to realise it’s not about wokeness, it’s just about being sensitive to the atmosphere.”

Gregg Wallace, 60, is best known for co-presenting MasterChef alongside John Torode since 2005, as well as its spin-offs Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals.

He was the original presenter of the BBC show Saturday Kitchen in 2002 and has also featured on Eat Well For Less, Inside The Factory, Turn Back Time, Harvest, and Supermarket Secrets.

He was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022 for his services to food and charity. Mr Wallace took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 and was partnered with Aliona Vilani.

He has two children, Tom and Libby, from a former relationship. He married Anne-Marie Sterpini in 2016 and the couple have a son called Sid.

Downing Street has warned that it is “essential that staff and the wider public have confidence” that the BBC takes issues relating to workplace seriously.

After revealing that secretary Lisa Nandy spoke to BBC bosses last week after the Gregg Wallace row began, No 10 said: “More broadly the BBC is conducting an independent review into workplace which must deliver clear and timely recommendations.

“It’s essential that staff and the wider public have confidence that the BBC takes these issues seriously.”

A former MasterChef contestant has come forward with fresh allegations of inappropriate comments made by Gregg Wallace both during and after her time in the competition.

During her time on the show in 2011, Jackie Kearney claimed Wallace would make “sexual innuendos about women when they weren’t in earshot”, as well as in front of them.

She said added: “There were several times that he would comment on my legs, or comment on the skirts I was wearing… he made a comment once: ‘If I’d known you had legs like that, maybe you’d have made it further’.”

She later returned to the show as a guest judge in 2017, shortly after the publication of her second book, which she tried to give the two judges,

“I was feeling really proud of it,” she said. “I came into the studio and was like, ‘Hi Gregg, I’ve got something for you!’ And he said, ‘Oh, is it a present for my c**k?’”

She added: “I felt like I wanted the ground to swallow me up. The humiliation and embarrassment… but it wasn’t just about what he said. I felt so humiliated, I felt so stupid.”

She then went to the toilets and cried.

Gregg Wallace has been branded as “unbelievably foolish” by Stephen Fry for posting a video to social media over the weekend blaming “middle-class women of a certain age” for complaints against him.

The veteran actor told SkyNews: “It was obviously unbelievably foolish of Gregg Wallace to make that video over the weekend. It really showed that he wasn’t understanding.”

“Even if he felt he had been misunderstood himself, he could surely see that there were some women there who were truly hurt and had felt not listened to and that he should first of all address that.”