BBC faces pressure to pause MasterChef over Wallace claims
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The BBC should consider pausing MasterChef while Gregg Wallace is investigated, an MP has suggested.
Rupa Huq, who is also a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the continued broadcast of MasterChef could be "triggering" for the women involved.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today, she said: "I think possibly there is an argument for pausing while this investigation takes its course, and maybe not airing it tonight."
Wallace, 60, has denied behaviour of a sexually harassing nature, after 13 people came forward last week with allegations of inappropriate comments.
Currently, the next episode of MasterChef: The Professionals is scheduled to air at 21:00 GMT on Monday on BBC One.
It will be the 16th episode of the 21 which have been recorded for the current series. The next two episodes are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday.
All three of this week's episodes have already been made available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
A Christmas special is also due to be broadcast later this month. In a press release issued on Friday, the BBC said viewers could "expect fireworks, great Christmas banter and good food".
There are also more than 250 episodes of historical programmes featuring Wallace available to watch on BBC iPlayer, the majority of which are MasterChef or its spin-offs.
Rupa Huq, pictured in June, has been the Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton since 2015
On Sunday, Wallace said the accusations had come from a "handful of middle-class women of a certain age".
His response was criticised by his accusers, one of whom said the comments showed he "clearly hasn't learnt his lesson".
Ulrika Jonsson, who claimed she was told that Wallace made a “rape joke” during her time on Celebrity MasterChef, told the Telegraph, external she felt Wallace's response showed “the arrogance of a man who has zero introspection or self-awareness”.
“When he made reference to women of a certain age I was just seething... I was just absolutely wild,” she said.
Speaking on Monday, Huq drew attention to the BBC's plan to continue broadcasting the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals that evening.
"I understand it's scheduled for 9pm today [Monday], and it's already in the Christmas schedules, but it seems to be not going away from the news."
She added the broadcast of further episodes of MasterChef "could be massively triggering for the women involved, in fact any woman involved in any type of similar incidents", and said the BBC should consider pausing the series "out of sensitivity".
Huq, the sister of TV presenter Konnie, acknowledged that Wallace had stepped back from presenting the show, but noted the pre-recorded episodes are still scheduled to air.
"To the casual viewer, there's not going to be any difference," she said. "If it's on TV tonight, it looks like he sort of got away with it, and I think the BBC should send a strong signal [about] this sort of behaviour."
She added: "We need to let the investigation do its work, but at the same time, if he's being dangled on our screens while this is going on, I just think at the moment maybe pause it."
Another former Celebrity MasterChef contestant, the Times Radio presenter Aasmah Mir, said on Sunday she had raised concerns about Wallace in 2017.
She told the Sunday Times that Wallace had made inappropriate comments during filming.
“I’ve not watched MasterChef since, because of him," she said. "To make someone feel that uncomfortable, or not to know that you’re making someone that uncomfortable - why would I want to watch someone like that?"
Wallace stepped aside last week after a BBC News investigation revealed allegations of inappropriate sexual comments and inappropriate behaviour against him.
The investigation heard from 13 people spanning a range of ages, who worked across five different shows.
Production company Banijay UK said it has launched an investigation, with which Wallace was co-operating, while the BBC has said it will “always listen if people want to make us aware of something directly”.
The BBC News investigation also found that Wallace was warned by the BBC after a complaint was raised about him in 2018 about the show Impossible Celebrities, something Huq referred to on Monday.
"Apparently this is not the first time, there were warnings before," she said.
"So it does raise the question that when these BBC investigations have happened, what was the consequence? Were they taking the conclusions seriously, [or] did they have their fingers in their ears?"
Helen Lederer, who also previously appeared on Celebrity MasterChef, told the Today programme that Monday's episode was an "opportunity to make a stand, either by [viewers] not watching it or [the BBC] not putting it on".
“I suppose more people would watch it given the controversy, but I think it’s been very coloured by the piling in and the debate," she said.
Speaking to Radio 4's Woman's Hour, former Channel 4 News editor Dorothy Byrne said Wallace himself was "a man of a certain age - the age of dinosaurs", adding: "There are no women in this country who want to listen to smutty jokes."
Byrne said the BBC "probably should pause MasterChef" because it had been "brought into disrepute".
She added: "I think they need to bring in outside HR consultants or an individual to look at what has gone wrong in the BBC."
Baroness Harriet Harman told the programme: "If a more junior man had behaved like this, he would have been challenged much earlier on.
"But the problem is when you've got a senior man who is powerful in a hierarchy in this situation, the behaviour goes unchallenged.
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