ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall will face questions from MPs about the scandal surrounding This Morning after Phillip Schofield’s controversial exit from the programme.
Shortly after his initial exit from This Morning amid a rumoured feud with co-presenter Holly Willoughby, Schofield admitted to lying about his affair with a former runner of the show in 2020 in a statement to the Daily Mail.
Schofield resigned from ITV and stepped down as the host of the British Soap Awards on 26 May, with the presenter being replaced by Jane McDonald.
Now, McCall is set to appear before a session of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 14 June to give evidence about how much ITV bosses knew regarding the situation.
News that McCall will testify before MPs comes after ex-This Morning host Eamonn Holmes accused ITV of “covering up” for Schofield.
Elsewhere, the show’s resident health expert Dr Ranj Singh said he complained about “bullying and discrimination” during his time on This Morning. A spokesperson for ITV who completed an independent inquiry into Dr Ranj’s claims found there was “no evidence of bullying or discrimination”.
On Wednesday 31 May, McCall ordered a barrister-led inquiry to establish the facts around Schofield’s departure from This Morning.
McCall said ITV “takes its responsibilities around duty of care and speaking up seriously and has robust and well-established processes in place which allow anyone who works with us to raise concerns they may have anonymously” in a letter to culture secretary Lucy Frazer.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, who was one of the addressees of Wednesday’s letter, said in a written response on Thursday (1 June): “The Committee regards the media industry’s duty of care towards its staff a matter of the highest importance.
“Whilst the recent coverage focuses on the Schofield case, it also raises fundamental issues about safeguarding and complaint handling both at ITV and more widely across the media.”
In response to Schofield’s statement admitting he had lied about his “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague on This Morning, ITV said it had investigated rumours of the 61-year-old presenter’s romantic involvement with a network employee when they first surfaced.
“Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours, as did Phillip’s then agency, YMU. In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on This Morning and were not provided with, and did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour,” ITV’s statement read.
Additional reporting by Press Association
