Gregg Wallace 'has no understanding' as Celebrity MasterChef star hits out

A former Celebrity MasterChef contestant has criticised Gregg Wallace's response to the allegations against him, suggesting he lacks "no insight or understanding of how he behaves". The MasterChef host, who is facing various claims of making "inappropriate sexual jokes" and other complaints about his conduct, has attributed the accusations to "a handful of middle-class women of a certain age".

Wallace, 60, is at the centre of allegations from 13 individuals spanning multiple shows over 17 years, as BBC News reported on Thursday, with additional accounts emerging since. Kirsty Wark, ex-Newsnight presenter and one of the complainants, recounted to BBC News how Wallace made comments and jokes of a "sexualised nature" during her time on Celebrity MasterChef in 2011.

Scottish TV personality Aggie MacKenzie, also a competitor on that series, concurred with Wark's statements during an interview on Good Morning Britain. "Yes I agree with everything Kirsty says, those jokes weren’t actually directed at me, but the jokes were always smutty, they were endless."

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She described Wallace as akin to "some sort of dinosaur who just can’t read the room," and who was seemingly permitted to continue such behaviour. MacKenzie, 69, added: "[His reaction] illustrates how he just has no insight or understanding of how he behaves. He just doesn’t get it.

"He’s been allowed to carry on in his own sweet way for many, many years."

Labour MP Dr Rupa Huq, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, suggested on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that pausing the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals would "send a strong message that this kind of behaviour