Women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson has said the Government should look to “go further” on restricting the use of non-disclosure agreements, in the wake of allegations made against David Walliams.
Best-selling author and former Britain’s Got Talent judge Walliams was named as part of an investigation by The Guardian and ITV News on Tuesday, after he tried to obtain an injunction to prevent the reporting of allegations against him.
One woman described her alleged encounter with Walliams, when she was 15, as a “sexual assault”, while multiple women accused him of “grooming” them when they were teenagers. Walliams, 55, denies any wrongdoing.
Minister calls for stricter NDA rules
Ms Phillipson was asked on Sky News about the possibility of banning NDAs altogether after employment rights legislation tightened restrictions on their use to protect whistleblowers and stop workers being prevented from speaking out about harassment or discrimination.
She said: “We do need to look to go further. I think there is scope to go further on this to make sure that we do not see the legal system basically abused in order to silence women.”
Asked if that included looking at a ban, Ms Phillipson said: “Yes, because we cannot have a system where rich and powerful individuals, rich and powerful men, are able to silence women by their silence and stop things coming to light.”
Injunctions and misuse concerns
She was further asked if she thought injunctions were being misused by “rich men”, and said: “Yes, I believe that they are, and you know, men who seek to commit acts of violence against women or seek to behave in a way that is completely inappropriate will use whatever is available at their disposal to do that.”
Ministry of Justice colleagues are looking at what the Government can do to intervene so injunctions are not misused, Ms Phillipson added. She echoed comments from her ministerial colleague Satvir Kaur, who told the Commons a consultation on going further to limit when NDAs can be used is under consultation.
Fallout for Walliams
Since Walliams was named in the ITV News and Guardian investigation, he has been dropped by his literary agent, while the BBC said it was “in the process of removing” programmes including Little Britain. Sky also said it would drop plans to distribute a film based on his book Fing in the UK and Ireland in early 2027.
In a letter understood to have been sent several months ago by Walliams to journalists working on the ITV News and Guardian investigation, he wrote: “Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with. I realise I did not always take people’s feelings properly into account. That is something I regret. And whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that I never did.”
Walliams added: “I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.” He has yet to respond following the publication of his name on Tuesday.
