ITV hires lawyer to investigate Phillip Schofield’s departure from This Morning

Phillip Schofield’s abrupt exit from This Morning is to be reviewed by a lawyer, ITV has revealed today (Wednesday 31st May).

Schofield resigned from ITV on Friday (26th May) and was dropped by his talent agency YMU after admitting that he had an “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a young male runner from This Morning.

Due to the fact that the young runner was his junior on the daytime show, his behaviour has been criticised as an ‘abuse of power’.

While the fallen presenter claims that he lied to keep the long-rumoured affair hidden, questions still remain around the extent of ITV’s knowledge of it and its handling of an investigation that took place in early 2020.

ITV has said it looked into rumours of the affair at that time and “did not find any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour”. However, still under fire over the scandal, the broadcaster has now instructed a barrister to ‘carry out an external review of the facts’.

Carolyn McCall. Chief Executive at ITV since 2018.

As reported by PA, Dame Carolyn McCall confirmed this step had been taken in a letter to Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary.

McCall’s letter in full:

“You will have seen the significant media coverage concerning Phillip Schofield. As you would expect we take the matter extremely seriously and have reviewed our own records over the weekend. These show that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in late 2019/early 2020 ITV investigated. Both parties were questioned then 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 the This Morning and wider Daytime team and were not provided with and did not find any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.

“Given the ongoing rumours, we continued to ask questions of both parties, who both continued to deny the rumours, including as recently as this month. There has been a lot of inaccuracy in the reporting so I thought it would be useful to set out some facts.

“The ITV employee was aged 19 when he first did work experience at This Morning in 2015 and 20 years old when he applied and succeeded in securing a job as a runner on the show. He subsequently applied for and was successful in securing a promotion to Loose Women in 2019. He left ITV in 2021.

“As you would imagine given the social media scrutiny of him, we have offered him our support throughout this period and indeed are still doing so. The employee has made it clear that he does not wish to be named or identified in connection with this matter. We would be grateful if you would be mindful of this.

“The relationships we have with those we work with are based on trust. Phillip made assurances to us and his agency which he now acknowledges were untrue and we feel badly let down. 

“We consider our approach was reasonable and proportionate at the time and in the circumstances. We believe that we did not have any grounds to mount any other sort of investigation.

McCall’s letter also referred to allegations of a “toxic” atmosphere behind-the-scenes of the long-running daytime production. The show’s former resident GP, Ranj Singh, said that he raised concerns about “bullying and discrimination” two years ago and felt “managed out” as a result.

“We are fully committed to providing every opportunity for anyone who works with us to raise any concern or comments they may have. Following a complaint made by Dr Ranj, we appointed an external and independent advisor to carry out a review. This external review found no evidence of bullying or discrimination.

“I want to reassure you that as a producer and broadcaster, 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.

“The confidential reporting number and other ways of raising concerns are promoted via a number of channels, which includes ITV’s internal staff website, across ITV buildings and how to speak up is part of ITV’s code of ethics & conduct annual mandatory training for all staff.

“We have now instructed Jane Mulcahy KC (Blackstone Chambers) to carry out an external review to establish the facts. She will review our records and talk to people involved. This work will also consider our relevant processes and policies and whether we need to change or strengthen any.

“Given Phillip’s admission of the extent of his deception the work will extend to cover any related issues that may emerge. This work will be carried out as quickly as possible and we will be happy to share the outcome.”