ITV risks full-scale enquiry in Parliament if chief exec does not appear before MPs

ITV may face a full-scale enquiry into the Phillip Schofield scandal after it emerged that chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall will not appear before MPs next week, according to a leading commentator.

Christopher Hope, associate editor of the Daily Telegraph, was responding to questions about ITV facing questions during a session of the Commons media committee on Tuesday.

He told GB News: “The problem that the MPs might find irritating is that ITV are putting forward a guy called Magnus Brooke, who is the group director of strategy, policy and regulation at ITV for the session.

“That was all very well, when they were going to be discussing the draft media bill, but given they now will be discussing the prime time flagship programme on ITV, MPs might wonder whether this person is the right person to appear.

“His direct line manager is Dame Carolyn McCall, she’s the chief executive and it’s upon her to whom all these questions are aimed. She won’t be going as things stand and that might make them more annoyed than ever.”

Asked in a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Dawn Neesom if Ms McCall will “have to go” if she refuses to appear, Mr Hope said: “Well, that’s right. There’s a high risk game being played here.

“ITV are trying to carry on with a kind of business as usual approach by sending over this board director, but he’s not the top person and he’s only only given this big role last October.

“Now the risks they’ve got here is if the MPs feel they’re not being respected, they’re not receiving the right person to answer the questions, given the clear indications they will raise these issues as part of the session, if they are not being given the respect they deserve, they are risking a full scale inquiry. And that’s a real problem for ITV if that happens.”

He added: “There’s a feeling here that it’s not enough to say that Philip Schofield has gone. What next and what did ITV know?

“And there was a degree of duty of care towards people and that’s where MPs will get really fired up, if they feel they’re not being given the right answers from what a person who could be a junior person compared to the top person next week. It might get worse before it gets better for ITV.”