- Scandalous behaviour - 4th September 2025
- Crossing the line? - 3rd September 2025
- Breaking bad again… - 3rd September 2025
Exposing scandals has always been paramount for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry as he pursued his long journalistic career, and it is highlighted today by the concerns about Angela Rayner’s property tax, as well as increasing unease concerning racism in a classic Morecambe and Wise sketch following a string of high-profile scandals.
Bringing out scandals (often involving public money) is a mainstay of journalists like me.
Over the years I have exposed the corrupt practices of police officers, business people, and senior politicians.
This is shown in spades now by disturbing news about the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Angela Rayner which dominates UK papers today, as well as growing unease about a famous Morecambe and Wise sketch amid allegations of racism, following a series of appalling controversies to have beset the BBC.
Let’s start with the information about Ms Rayner.
She has acknowledged for the first time that she had not paid enough stamp duty when she bought an £800,000 flat in Hove earlier in the year.
When Ms Rayner bought the property in May, she paid the standard rate of stamp duty, estimated to be £30,000, rather than the higher rate for second homes, which would have been as much as £70,000.
She says the reason she did so was that she had in January put her stake in her constituency home in Greater Manchester into a trust, with her children as the beneficiaries. Because she had removed her name from the deed of the house, she was advised that she no longer counted as the owner of the property and therefore could classify the Hove flat as her only dwelling.
Tax experts say, however, that stamp duty [Land Transaction Tax (LTT) in Wales] law is more complicated than that, and concerns remain over who gave her the initial legal advice, what she told them and what the advice said.
Let’s turn now to that classic Morecambe and Wise sketch, as well as the sequence of terrible controversies which have engulfed the BBC, about which executives have REFUSED to answer The Eye’s questions.
In it the duo sleepily prepare breakfast to a tune made popular by strippers.
But part of the 1976 sketch (which I must admit is very funny) shows them using grapefruits to mimic a black man’s lips when a song sung by a black man is played, and the audience clap.
It is unlikely when there is sensitivity to any accusation of racism (including publicly by the BBC) that such a thing would be shown now.
The sketch is much-repeated and lauded as classic Morecambe and Wise, indeed on Facebook (FB) one fan said: “They don’t make them like that anymore, mores the pity, absolutely brilliant, they (sic) sketches were classic, you never get tired of watching them”.
Yet this section is clearly racist, and managers have called out allegations of racism as they have battled against the string of outrageous scandals.
John Torode [the former presenter of MasterChef (MC)] was sacked after being accused of racism, and a BBC spokesperson stated: “The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously. We will not tolerate racist language of any kind (an interesting comment in the context of the Morecambe and Wise sketch) and, as we have already said, we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken. John Torode’s contract on MasterChef will not be renewed“.
But this alleged behaviour is only one of the scandals swirling around the giant corporation. An independent report into Mr Torode’s presenting colleague Gregg Wallace, led by law firm Lewis Silkin, found that 45 of 83 allegations were substantiated, with Mr Torode mentioned too although not by name.
We have also had Welshman Wynne Evans, who was dropped as well by the BBC after apologising for using “inappropriate language” during the launch of the Strictly tour.
There have been other scandals, too, which made unfortunate headlines for the BBC.
One of Strictly Come Dancing’s stars was arrested on suspicion of rape, and the Met Police (Met) confirmed to The Sun on Sunday (SoS), that the man was also being questioned over alleged ‘non-consensual intimate image abuse’.
The show was also the subject of a review in 2024, when executives looked into allegations of bullying and harassment against former professional dancer Giovanni Pernice made by his former dance partner Amanda Abbington.
The corporation upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made – and introduced a series of new measures aimed at improving welfare, including the introduction of a chaperone who is present “at all times” during training room rehearsals.
EastEnders star James Borthwick was suspended as well, after a video emerged of the actor using a disabled slur backstage.
All of this puts centre stage recent astonishing events with the BBC at their heart, and adds to the pressure on the beleaguered Director General (DG) Tim Davie.
These are, however, only the latest allegations of inappropriate behaviour by stars, and they emphasise the attitude generally of managers at the BBC.
Close examination of online messages reveal that Mr Evans was first offered an interview by the BBC yet bizarrely it was then withdrawn.
The emails that were posted on the internet show how a journalist at BBC Radio Wales Breakfast had asked: “Would Wynne Evans be available to speaK to us anytime between 7-9am?”.
However he was informed soon afterwards: “Unfortunately we won’t be able to come to you tonight for a considered interview and do justice to the story and. for obvious reasons we won’t be able to offer a live interview tomorrow morning on radio”.
Afterwards a bemused Mr Evans told his followers online: “Yesterday I was offered an interview on Radio Wales and BBC Wales News about the BBC process and my new show. I emailed the director of BBC Wales (at the time Rhuanedd Richards) to say I’d be delighted to do the interview ………weirdly after my email to the director they then emailed to say they didn’t have time to do it justice …..also for obvious reasons. I’m not sure what the obvious reasons are.”….
Perhaps the ‘obvious reasons’ refers to earlier controversies. He apologised over an obnoxious “spit-roast” comment – but denied that it was a sex slur .
Apart from denying the remark, he gave details to the SoS of his “terrifying” mental collapse.
MailOnline (MO) followed up the extraordinary story, and said: “Strictly star Wynne Evans has broken his silence on his controversial ‘spit roast’ comment that left his career in tatters – claiming he was forced to apologise. The opera singer, 53, denied it was a sexual jibe about a female presenter – as he lifted the lid on the incident in an explosive new interview.”
But this is not the first time that Mr Evans has made the headlines. Video footage obtained earlier by the SoS, revealed that he apparently sent a sex toy to Mr Borthwick just two days after Mr Evans was recorded making the vile “spit-roast” comment about pro dancer Janette Manrara, and sees Mr Borthwick explaining that the toy was sent to Birmingham’s Utilita Arena reception by Mr Evans.
The news about the incident broke after Mr Evans had been recorded crudely suggesting the three-way sex session with Ms Manrara during a photocall for the then forthcoming Strictly Live Tour.
The alarming details about the sex toy video presented challenging headlines for the BBC in UK newspapers, but the organisation has often made news for the wrong reasons.
Queries about them were sent before Christmas but apart from automated messages saying the requests for information had been received, there has been no response whatsoever, even though they had directly followed the alarming business about Mr Wallace’s alleged behaviour.
Channel 5 was also examining accusations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by the presenter while making the programme ‘Gregg Wallace’s Big Weekends’ in 2019.
More alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’ came to light afterwards, and BBC News has reported about the corporation: “It’s the last thing it needs, so soon after other high profile scandals including the disgraced BBC News presenter Huw Edwards. The BBC has questions to answer about the allegations over what it knew about Wallace’s behaviour on and off set, and – if it was alerted to these types of allegations – what it did about them. BBC News has been made aware of two occasions when complaints were made. One, by the radio host Aasmah Mir, related to Celebrity MasterChef in 2017.”
One Welsh former senior executive with the corporation said to us earlier: “The BBC is attempting to display decisiveness after the Huw Edwards & Savile scandals to help restore its public image. It’s cosmetic.
All of this came on the back of many other terrible events where the BBC has hit the headlines.
We have been treated (along with many others) to the Huw Edwards and Jimmy Savile scandals (which the former executive mentioned), with the full extent of what Savile did only emerging relatively recently.
The terrible crimes committed by paedophile Savile have been outlined in a Netflix documentary series, called ‘A British Horror Story’.
Publicity material about it says: “TV star Jimmy Savile charmed a nation with his eccentricity and philanthropy. But sexual abuse allegations expose a shocking unseen side of his persona”. In the programme a large section included old footage from his days at the BBC, and some of the abuse even happened on corporation premises!
The Netflix transmission revealed how an original version of a programme by an investigative journalist which brought out the start of it all was suddenly dropped by the corporation, and a subsequent investigation showed how managers there admitted that this decision was “flawed”.
All of these incidents have prompted front page news about the BBC in UK papers.
In saying sorry about one of them, the enormous corporation proclaimed: “We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made. We want to apologise to Amanda Abbington and to thank her for coming forward and taking part. We know this would not have been an easy thing to do”.
It was also said in the apology statement that the BBC expects “…very high standards…”, so critics are entitled to ask why they apparently do not exist in the Media Office (MO), especially after the Mr Evans and other affairs.
This is the (extremely polite) request I put to their MO on December 19, and I was encouraged because on the BBC’s website it is declared: “Enquiries from journalists will be responded to as quickly as possible”.
Hello.
I am Editor of a news website called The Eye.
Could you please answer the following questions:
1. In the light of the Gregg Wallace, and other affairs, what, if any, programmes are now not to be transmitted, and how many of them are there?
2. What, if any, changes have been made to your Whistleblowers’ Charter, and what are the dates of these?
3. What, if any, changes have been made to your safeguarding policies, and what are the dates of these?
Statements can be made by return to this address – it is checked constantly and is totally secure.
Thank you,
Phil Parry
To date, though, there has been NO reply apart from two automated messages saying that the requests had been received.
Perhaps these questions are too tricky to answer amid allegations of racism, and following all those scandals…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing decades long award-winning career in journalism (including his years at the BBC), as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in the book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
