Lisa Nandy is not mincing her words over the Gregg Wallace allegations and the TV industry’s response.
The new UK Culture Secretary said she is “clear that people need to be heard, action has to be taken and perpetrators have to be stopped” as she stressed her lack of tolerance for bad behavior and a culture of complaints being “swept under the rug.”
She said she takes a “dim view” of big TV industry players who are not financially backing CIISA, the yet-to-launch film and TV bullying reporting body.
“CIISA think it is better if the industry grips this but if they don’t I will be prepared to take further action,” Nandy told the Culture, Media & Sport Committee (CMSC) this afternoon.
The Culture Sec has been speaking with the BBC since the TV world was rocked by the Wallace allegations, which came from more than a dozen women of inappropriate behavior and remarks, and a further three of inappropriate touching, much of which is said to have taken place on MasterChef. Wallace’s lawyers deny he engaged in behavior of a “sexually harassing nature.” He is just the latest BBC talent to have been accused of misbehavior, following the likes of Jermaine Jenas, Huw Edwards and two ex-Strictly Come Dancing pros.
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MasterChef producer Banijay UK is probing Wallace and he has stepped back from the show but Nandy criticized Banijay and others for not financially backing CIISA. “I was quite astonished when I got the list of the organizations financially supporting CIISA that Banijay is not on that list,” she added. “I take quite a dim view of company execs who do not take this seriously.”
A Banijay spokeswoman said: “Banijay UK takes behavioural standards across the industry incredibly seriously. We have been supporting CIISA since its inception with multiple meetings at the highest level and we look forward to agreeing next steps.”
Nandy went on to say that too few streamers are “supportive” of CIISA. And when CMSC chair Caroline Dinenage told Nandy that BBC Chair Samir Shah is not aware of CIISA, Nandy branded this news “astonishing.”
“The BBC is one of the organizations supporting CIISA but that points to the fact that we have a job of work to do,” she added. “One of the things that has really concerned me is that when we have looked across the board at repeated instances of people speaking up and making complaints they have been swept under the rug. It has only ended up resulting in action when [accusers] have gone to the media.”
As the Wallace allegations were flooding in last week, CIISA revealed it is creating a set of industry-wide standards around behavior. Plans for the body were unveiled several years back by Time’s Up UK but it is yet to open its anonymous reporting line as it seeks more funds. Publicly, CIISA is backed by huge stars including Keira Knightley, Emerald Fennell and Gemma Chan.
“Unsustainable” license fee
Nandy has been Culture Sec since Keir Starmer became Prime Minster over the summer. During her tenure she has launched a review into future BBC funding while reinstating the inflationary rise to the annual license fee.
On BBC funding, she revealed she has disbanded the previous government’s review into how the corporation is funded after its next charter in 2027 and will instead “roll this work” into the upcoming charter review.
Nandy said the license fee may be “unsustainable” in future as “fewer and fewer people” choose to pay the fee, with “no option off the table” for future funding.
“We intend the charter review process to not just think through the operation of the BBC and how it thrives now, but [also how it thrives] well into the latter half of this century,” she said.
The review will ask the public “how the BBC belongs to them and genuinely reflects their lives,” Nandy added.