A government minister has said restrictions on non-disclosure agreements should go further following allegations of sexual misconduct against David Walliams, warning the legal system must not be abused to silence women.
Walliams, 55, has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, including allegations of preying on teenage girls as young as 15. He has denied all wrongdoing. One woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by Walliams when she was 15, while several women accused him of grooming them as teenagers. The publication of the allegations has prompted debate over how injunctions and NDAs are used.
Minister calls for stronger action
Women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson, asked on Sky News about the possibility of banning NDAs altogether after employment rights legislation tightened restrictions on their use, 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, 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 under scrutiny
Asked if she thought injunctions were being misused by rich men, Phillipson 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, Phillipson added. She echoed comments from ministerial colleague Satvir Kaur, who told the Commons a consultation on going further to limit when NDAs can be used is under way.
Allegations and fallout
Author Chloe Combi told BBC News she had heard there were allegations about Walliams' behaviour around young female staff and that she was told in 2015 to warn schools he was not an appropriate booking by someone quite senior in the publishing industry. She said: "I obviously asked why, and to be honest I had already heard quite a lot of rumours because those worlds are quite small and contained. One of the things she said was that there had been real concerns about his behaviour around young female staff."
Combi said she never met Walliams herself, but her information had come from a number of people she was speaking to. 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.
In a letter understood to have been sent several months ago by Walliams to journalists working on the 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."
Sky became the latest business involved with projects linked to the star to distance itself from him on Wednesday, saying it would drop plans to distribute a film based on his book Fing in the UK and Ireland in early 2027. He has yet to respond following the publication of his name on Tuesday.
