Gregg Wallace: BBC should consider pausing Masterchef over allegations, says Rupa Huq MP

On Sunday, Wallace said the accusations had come from a “handful of middle-class women of a certain age”.

His response was criticised by his accusers, one of whom said the comments showed he “clearly hasn’t learnt his lesson”.

Huq told Today: “I understand it’s scheduled for 9pm today [Monday], and it’s already in the Christmas schedules, but it seems to be not going away from the news.”

She added the broadcast of further episodes of MasterChef “could be massively triggering for the women involved, in fact any woman involved in any type of similar incidents”, and said the BBC should consider pausing the series “out of sensitivity”.

Huq, the sister of TV presenter Konnie, acknowledged that Wallace had stepped back from presenting the show, but noted the pre-recorded episodes are still scheduled to air.

“To the casual viewer, there’s not going to be any difference,” she said. “If it’s on TV tonight, it looks like he sort of got away with it, and I think the BBC should send a strong signal [about] this sort of behaviour.”

She added: “We need to let the investigation do its work, but at the same time, if he’s being dangled on our screens while this is going on, I just think at the moment maybe pause it.”