Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said she will not watch the latest series of MasterChef due to the controversy surrounding its former presenters, Gregg Wallace and John Torode. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Nandy stressed that it is not her role as a government minister to dictate what the broadcaster can air, but as a viewer she has decided to skip the programme.
The first three episodes of the 21st series were released on iPlayer early Wednesday morning, ahead of the BBC One broadcast. Nandy said she has watched MasterChef on and off over the years but will not be tuning in this time. She declined to call for the BBC to cancel the series, stating that broadcast independence is a fundamental principle.
Wallace and Torode were sacked last month after a report upheld allegations of inappropriate sexual language against Wallace and a severely offensive racist slur against Torode. The Guardian reported that contestant Sarah Shafi was edited out of the series after objecting to its broadcast due to the allegations.
In separate remarks, Nandy repeated her call for the BBC to “get a grip” following controversies including the livestreaming of punk rap duo Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, which included antisemitic chants, and a Gaza documentary that failed to disclose its child narrator was the son of a Hamas official. She described these as “catastrophic failures” and said the BBC board must address them.
Nandy clarified that it is not her role to determine who works at the BBC, deflecting questions about Director General Tim Davie’s future. She noted that the BBC’s own chairman had acknowledged the failures and that the board must take action to restore trust in the corporation.
