Great Britain. Gregg Wallace, until recently co-host of the British version of “MasterChef” – several women accuse him of inappropriate behavior

The head of the British Ministry of Culture, Lisa Nandy, met with the management of the BBC public broadcaster, demanding assurances on how to deal with complaints about work culture, a British government spokesman said on Monday.

The BBC is facing questions about how it deals with reports of inappropriate behavior and how Wallace managed to remain the face of popular programs for so long despite such complaints.

More than a dozen women accused Wallace of behaving inappropriately and making sexual comments over the course of 17 years while filming the programs. TV presenter Aggie MacKenzie, who took part in the 2011 celebrity edition of MasterChef, complained about his “endless dirty jokes”.

Presenter Kirsty Wark, who also took part in the programme, said Wallace's jokes were “really inappropriate” and made many people on set feel uncomfortable.

Wallace, 60, announced last week that he was resigning from hosting the program, and investigation procedures were initiated into his behavior. However, the scandal flared up again on Sunday, when the presenter on social media was critical of the allegations against him, assessing that they were made by “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office described the statement as “completely inappropriate and misogynistic.”

The BBC reported that over a 17-year period, 13 people who worked with him on various programs had complained about Wallace. In 2018, the presenter was reprimanded by his employer after an internal investigation found he had behaved in an “unacceptable and unprofessional” manner.

Wallace's lawyers deny that their client's behavior amounted to “sexual harassment.”