Backlash against MasterChef host Gregg Wallace is the top story on many of Monday’s papers. ‘DisasterChef’ headlines the Daily Mirror, which reports that Wallace is “facing fury” after dismissing allegations against him as from “middle-class women of a certain age”. Wallace’s lawyers have said it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.
Metro plays on Wallace’s own words for its headline: ‘Women of a certain rage!’ It reports that to date, at least 13 female staff or guests have complained of lewd remarks and crude jokes, allegations Wallace says are untrue.
The Daily Mail focuses its continuing coverage of the Wallace scandal on the BBC, reporting that its bosses are “under mounting pressure to explain why they did not act sooner”, given that they were warned “four times”. In its reporting, the Mail quotes the corporation as saying: “It would be wrong to report the BBC has done nothing if or when matters have been raised with us – not least because it is already being widely reported there were interventions in both 2017 and 2018 where action was taken.”
One specific response to Wallace’s dismissal of the complaints against him – by presenter Ulrika Jonsson – guides the Sun’s coverage on Monday. The Swedish star is a former Celebrity Masterchef contestant as well as a Sun columnist and she says the “tirade” by Wallace shows his “ignorance and arrogance knows no bounds”.
The Daily Star offers its own frank advice to Wallace in the form of a front page that it labels as some “Cut out and keep crisis management advice for anybody called Gregg”. The headline then adds “When you’re in a really, really, really deep hole, stop digging”.
The Daily Telegraph, too, features Wallace’s outburst on its front page, as well as a political piece on the prime minister, whom it reports will “sideline his flagship pledge to make the UK the fastest growing economy in the G7”. Instead, the paper says, Sir Keir Starmer will reveal different economic targets “aimed at improving living standards”. Elsewhere on the Telegraph’s front page is a report on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowing to “crush a rebel uprising” that took control of the city of Aleppo.
The conflict in Aleppo leads the Financial Times on Monday, as it reports Russian and Syrian warplanes stepping up attacks on rebels who took Aleppo in a “lightning assault that poses the biggest challenge in years to Bashar al-Assad’s regime”. It illustrates the report with an image of a rebel fighter tearing up an advertisement for Assad in Aleppo.
MPs, doctors and charities have “drawn up a blueprint to overhaul palliative care”, the Guardian reports in its lead story. It says that following Friday’s assisted dying vote, a commission on palliative care has been set up to help improve end-of-life care “whether or not someone opts in for assisted death”. The paper also covers the airstrikes in Syria, which it reports “pummelled” the country’s north as Iran’s top diplomat arrived in the capital “in a show of support” for Assad. At the base of the page, Vogue editor Anna Wintour is pictured at the premiere of the Devil Wears Prada musical, which was originally loosely inspired by her working life.
The Times similarly covers Assad’s vow to “crush the rebels” who took control of Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo over the weekend, as well as Anna Wintour’s red carpet look in London. Leading its coverage, however, is a report on NHS bosses warning that “vital services will be cut back and A&E departments risk being turned into war zones” to hit hospital operation targets to be announced by the government this week. The prime minister has previewed an announcement of “ambitious but achievable milestones” to “refocus his government around fewer core objectives”, it reports.
The i leads its front page with a story based on a poll run by the paper, in which 49% of respondents say they want Sir Keir Starmer to prioritise closer economic ties with Europe over a free trade deal with incoming US President Donald Trump, with 28% wanting to focus on the US. It reports that Sir Keir “wants to make Brexit work” and hopes closer ties “will boost sluggish growth”.
