Gregg Wallace's alleged behaviour ‘never been acceptable', says watchdog chief
Baroness Kennedy, who heads the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, which aims to improve behaviour in the creative industries, made the comments after BBC News reported fresh claims of inappropriate behaviour by the 60-year-old from 50 more people.
Wallace had stepped back from hosting the BBC cooking show last year after a number of historical complaints came to light, with the latest claims including allegations he groped one MasterChef worker and pulled his trousers down in front of another.
On Tuesday, the former greengrocer said in an Instagram post that he had been cleared of the 'most serious and sensational accusations' against him ahead of the report into his alleged misconduct, but added that he recognised some of his humour and language was inappropriate 'at times' and apologised for this.
Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight magazine show, Baroness Kennedy said: 'The thing about this is that it should've never been acceptable behaviour, and people did complain about it.
'Being a cheeky chappy and the guy that the public were attracted to as being their frank-speaking, playful man that they saw on the telly, he was not speaking on the television the way that he was speaking to the people around him.'
Baroness Kennedy said the public might have enjoyed watching Wallace playing the 'cheeky chappy' but that they had not seen his 'uglier side'.
The latest set of allegations reported by BBC News, saw a university student claim that Wallace reached under her skirt and pinched her bottom in a nightclub, while a junior worker alleged he dropped his trousers in front of her while he was not wearing any underwear.
Other recent claims include a MasterChef worker who said she tried to complain about comments he allegedly made about her body in 2022, and a former policeman who tried to raise concerns after he allegedly witnessed Wallace making inappropriate sexual comments at a charity event in 2023.
BBC News reported the majority of new allegations claimed he made inappropriate sexual comments, with 11 women accusing him of inappropriate sexual behaviour, such as groping and touching.
Baroness Kennedy added: 'Now I know that Gregg was saying that he is someone with neurodiversity problems, that he's autistic, and that may explain some of his deeply inappropriate behaviour, but he's not inhibited, he's disinhibited in what he does, but that's also a role for management.
'If you employ someone, and then you discover that they actually don't know how to contain themselves and how to behave, then you have to basically be taking them on one side and nipping it in the bud at an early stage. That was not done.
'I think that's part of a reflection of the way in which television has changed in the last 20 years.'
Baroness Kennedy said 'it's not so much that suddenly we've become politically correct' but the issue was about behaviour that was never acceptable.
BBC News said it had not seen the final Banijay report into Wallace's behaviour, but it was understood the presenter had been sacked.
Philippa Childs, head of broadcasting union Bectu, said she would 'like to feel' a similar situation could not happen again, but added that convincing people to come forward was a 'real problem for the industry to tackle', adding that young workers were 'vulnerable' as they feared for their jobs.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I can't say I'm surprised that there have been further claims, given that's what normally happens when a story emerges about an individual of bad behaviour, then other people do feel more confident in coming forward.'
Childs said her union had also been approached with further revelations.
Production firm Banijay previously said Wallace was 'committed to fully co-operating' with the external review, while his lawyers had previously strongly denied 'he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature'.
The most recent series of MasterChef: The Professionals continued to air last year amid allegations against Wallace, but two MasterChef celebrity Christmas specials were pulled from the BBC's schedule in December 2024.
Speaking at the time, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she would look to impose new standards in the creative industry amid the allegations.
Banijay UK declined to comment on Wallace's comments, while the BBC said it would not comment until the investigation was complete and subsequent report was released.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
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I've received so many messages since he died saying: 'We didn't agree with him politically, but he helped my elderly parents'; 'He got support for my disabled child'; 'He visited my sick grandma in hospital.'' In some ways, his profile and accessibility made him vulnerable. He was the face of government and easy to locate. In fact, it later emerged that Ali had worked through a list of possible victims, including Michael Gove and Keir Starmer, both of who were deemed too complicated to find. Amess – targeted because he had voted in favour of airstrikes against Islamic State – was holding a surgery. (The pinned tweet on Amess's account gave the date, place and details of how to book.) 'I always worried about Dad's safety, but I thought if anything was going to happen, it would be a punch-up from a local yob,' says Katie. 'Never in your wildest dreams would you imagine that a terrorist would go through a list and then come and murder your dad. It's just so shocking. 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Two home secretaries – Priti Patel and Suella Braverman – assured the family that they were working on it, but their successor James Cleverly refused to meet them. Instead, there has been only a Prevent learning review, completed in February 2022. This gives a glimpse of Prevent's failures in the case – the strange decision‑making (why focus on student loans and western music only?), the lack of record-keeping, the absence of communication, returned emails or follow-up. 'I was absolutely gobsmacked when I read it,' says Katie. 'I could run Prevent better with my friends. If these are the people entrusted to save us from terrorism, we've got a huge problem.' Equally striking is the sparsity of the review. No one involved is identified or even interviewed. It's a review of secondhand accounts and the records kept (and not kept). 'The main conclusion it seems to draw is that so much has changed with Prevent, it's all been fixed, so we don't need to look any harder,' says Katie. 'If that was true, why were three little girls murdered in Southport last year?' Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, was referred to and rejected by Prevent three times. One of the questions to be asked in the Southport inquiry is whether Prevent needs a complete overhaul. 'They could have asked that question years earlier after my dad was killed and perhaps Southport wouldn't have happened,' says Katie. Campaigning hasn't been easy. Katie is based in the US and her mother, Julia, is not well – she had a stroke shortly after Ali's trial, which the family attributes to trauma and grief. The change of government briefly gave them hope. Katie and Julia had a video meeting with Yvette Cooper, the new home secretary, who told them that Amess was a great friend, their Westminster offices were next door and they used to walk to the Commons chamber together. 'We thought: 'Perfect. Now we're getting somewhere,'' says Katie. Instead, months passed. 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'It's my 40th birthday this month and I know I'd have flown back to England like I did every summer and my dad would have thrown me a huge party. There'd have been 40 balloons and he'd have made my friends give me 40 bumps! I want to have children, but I think: 'What sort of mother would I be now when I'm in so much trauma and heartache?' I used to think he'd be such a funny grandpa. All that has been robbed from me.' For Katie, the lack of support from Westminster after her father's decades of service is deeply painful and nonsensical, too. 'I just cannot believe the way we've been treated by his friends and colleagues,' she says. 'It's in all their interests. They are meeting the public day in, day out, so why don't they want to investigate properly and establish what would make them safer? Dad's legacy needs to be that through what happened to him, he saves other people. Please, just show some human decency. Do the right thing.' Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
UK jail escape trial reignites debate over indefinite sentences
The trial of an alleged escapee who spent hours on the roof of a high-security prison in his underpants is set to be the first time the stress caused by indeterminate sentences can be used as a legal defence. Joe Outlaw is due to stand trial on Monday for climbing on to the roof of HMP Frankland in Durham in June 2023 in protest at the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence he and others are serving. The 38-year-old has been in jail for 13 years, much of that in isolation, after receiving an IPP sentence for robbing a takeaway at gunpoint in 2011. He says he does not remember the crime because he was drunk and high on drugs. Two months before his Durham protest, Outlaw staged a 12-hour sit-in on the roof of Strangeways, HMP Manchester, where he wrote 'FREE IPPZ' in paint. He is due to be tried later for 'escape from lawful custody' in allegedly damaging the roof of Strangeways and for starting a fire in his cell as part of a suicide attempt. The case raises once again the issue of IPPs, which 2,544 prisoners were still serving in March despite the sentences being abolished in 2012. The legislation that ended what campaigners describe as a cruel system was not retrospective. A spokesperson for Reform and Rebuild, a prison advocacy group which is set to give evidence in the trial, said it was 'well overdue' for courts to take into account the stress caused by IPPs. 'This sentence has led to a lot of destructive behaviour among prisoners,' the organisation said. Cherrie Nichol, a campaigner whose brother is serving an IPP, said that under the previous Conservative government many prisoners grew 'absolutely desperate' when they were told they would not be able to be resentenced. 'There were a few of the IPP prisoners who then took their lives because they decided that they were never going to get out,' she said. 'Nobody's been resentenced yet, but we are looking at human rights. That's another battle but we will get it. We'll definitely get it because it's cruel and inhumane. I think if we don't keep fighting and jumping up and down, then it'll just be forgotten.' Campaigners have made some progress over the years, for example in shortening the licences of those released from IPPs from 10 years to three years. Nichol said this 'meant some people could go on holiday with their families and have a life again, because 10 years is a long time after you've suffered'. But she added: 'The government won't admit they're wrong. So we have to go around, trample around things delicately.'
