ITV bosses Dame Carolyn McCall and Kevin Lygo have been grilled by MPs today over the Phillip Schofield scandal.
They were asked whether ‘everyone knew’ about Phil’s affair with a younger colleague, as well as claims of a ‘toxic culture’ at the company. Phil recently stepped down from This Morning and ITV after his admission.
Phil said he had an “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a colleague. There’s since been claims that ‘everyone knew’ about Phil’s affair at ITV. However, McCall has now shut those allegations down.
Here’s five revelations from the grilling today…
ITV boss denies claims ‘everyone knew’ about Schofield affair
McCall, who is ITV’s chief executive, said: “The people that have said they knew would only have heard rumours about it. If any of the individuals had come to us and said there is evidence that there is a relationship between Phillip Schofield and person X, we would have, with evidence, we would have been able to launch a formal investigation.”
McCall went on to say that they “worked very, very hard” for “many, many months” to ask “not just Phillip Schofield and person X, but people in production if they knew something was going on”.
She added: “It was repeatedly denied by both individuals but also no one in the team ever said there was anything that they could say. In fact, most of them said they don’t know that’s going on.”
Boss denies ‘turning blind eye’ to Phillip Schofield claims
Another moment saw McCall deny claims that ITV ‘turned a blind eye’ to the claims against Phillip. She said: “[Not investigating] had nothing to do with This Morning being commercially successful. We were trying to ask and did ask questions, repeatedly and continuously, and we were repeatedly told there was nothing happening.
“No one here on the management board would ever turn a blind eye to something as serious as this. If we had known at the time we would have taken action swiftly.”
ITV boss hits back at ‘toxic culture’ claims
McCall also denied claims of a ‘toxic culture’. When asked about the claims, she said: “What I would say is that it’s not something that we take that seriously. What I know is that when we talk about culture it’s incredibly important to me, personally and so it deeply disappoints me, right?
“But we do not recognise that in This Morning and the reason for that is that we have tangible evidence to tell you that the vast majority of people at daytime and at This Morning are engaged. That’s not to say we don’t take complaints about it seriously. We’ve had two complaints in five years about that issue. Both of them taken very seriously.”
Person X ‘wasn’t paid off’
The bosses denied that Person X was given a “pay-off” when he left the channel. He reportedly received a standard payment as he was made redundant. Kyla Mullins – the general counsel and company secretary for ITV – said: “I wouldn’t characterise it as a pay-off. His role was made redundant.”
McCall added: “He was a fixed-term contractor, so staff. We treat in exactly same way. He’d been on fixed-term contracts throughout his time on ITV.”
This Morning received ‘two complaints of bullying’
McCall also confirmed that This Morning received two complaints of ‘bullying’ – one from former resident doctor Ranj Singh.
Read more: Strictly star issues plea over Phillip Schofield scandal: ‘It’s not like he’s murdered anyone’
However, she said: “We don’t recognise that culture.” But she said this does not mean they don’t take the complaints seriously.
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