‘Are you actually joking?!’ Bev Turner lambasts BBC investigation into Gregg Wallace over ‘decade-old jokes’: ‘Give me strength!’
GB News host Bev Turner has slammed the BBC’s investigation into presenter Gregg Wallace amid claims of “inappropriate behaviour”, criticising the use of taxpayer money.
The 60-year-old MasterChef host is facing mounting allegations against him by several women, which he dismissed on social media as a “handful of middle class women of a certain age”.
In a furious rant, posted on Instagram, Wallace fumed: “Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time. Can you imagine how many women, female contestants, on MasterChef have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo?”
Expressing her frustration at the investigation over “decade-old jokes”, host Bev Turner questioned “where the line is drawn”, as Wallace has now been “cancelled and lost his job” due to the allegations.
Explaining the process of the BBC’s investigation, Employment Lawyer Amanda Lennon told GB News: “Sexual harassment is any unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, and since the end of October, employers have had an enhanced duty to take positive, proactive steps in the workplace to to prevent sexual harassment.
“So the BBC is under a duty of care, and I think, unfortunately for Gregg Wallace, that really there’s no excuse for the comments that we’re seeing coming through, if indeed he did make them.”
She added: “But I think in in fairness to Gregg, the BBC does have to investigate these comments in full. They do have to look at what the evidence is before they can take action against him.”
Outraged at the situation, Bev exclaimed: “Give me strength! So the BBC have to investigate jokes from ten years ago that might have referenced sex. Are you actually joking?!
“There were some complaints – Aasmah Mir who’s now a radio DJ, she emailed to say that she thought something that he’d said was off colour. The BBC probably did look into it and they concluded nothing to see here. So why has that now changed?”
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Lennon responded: “The BBC is an employer, so it has a duty as an employer to investigate those allegations. It doesn’t really matter how far back they went, you can’t just dismiss allegations based on the fact that they took place ten or more years ago.
“It also depends on the nature of the remarks and the context in which they’re made, so the BBC will be looking at each of these on its own merits, and some may be more serious than others, but it is possible that if the remarks that we’re hearing in the news are true, Gregg Wallace could be found to have breached the BBC policies on anti-bullying, anti-harassment, and now anti-sexual harassment, so he could face the consequences for that.”
Asking Lennon directly, Bev pressed the lawyer: “Do you not share my frustration as a woman that whilst we’re talking about a joke someone might have said ten years ago, women still don’t have equal pay in the workplace, women are still doing the vast majority of domestic care at home whilst also going to work as well.
“Those are real issues that affect women’s lives, and they get overshadowed by this nonsense?”
Disagreeing with Bev, Lennon told GB News: “I think it’s dangerous to dismiss it as nonsense. I myself have been in workplaces where this sort of remark has been made, and fundamentally the duty of care lies on the BBC.
“They have to take this seriously in the interests of all concerned, and they may well do the investigation and decide it’s nonsense, but they can’t make that judgment until they’ve been through the evidence heard from both sides and made their decision. And that’s just a matter of law.”
MasterChef production company Banijay UK has “committed to fully co-operating throughout the process” and called on anyone who has a complaint against Wallace to come forward.
They advise anyone with an issue to speak to legal firm Lewis Silkin, who are heading up the investigation.
A spokesperson assured: “All information will be handled sensitively, and names of those providing evidence to the team will be kept confidential.”