ITV boss responds to calls for Jeremy Clarkson to step down from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Charlie Herbert

He labelled Clarkson’s words as ‘awful’

An ITV boss has responded to calls for Jeremy Clarkson to be removed from his hosting role on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ following his “hateful” comments about Meghan Markle.

On Sunday, the former Top Gear presenter wrote in The Sun how he “hates” the royal “on a cellular” level and dreams about people throwing “excrement” at her in the streets.

He said he dislikes the Duchess of Sussex more than Nicola Sturgeon and serial killer Rose West, who was responsible for the murder and torture of young women and children.

The column received widespread condemnation from the public, celebrities, politicians and even Clarkson’s own daughter.

This led to calls from some for Clarkson to be removed from his television roles for ITV and Amazon Prime.

Clarkson is the current host of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ on ITV.

Now, the broadcaster’s media and entertainment boss Kevin Lygo has responded to the calls. Although he said the column did not represent ITV’s values and was “awful,” Lygo said there were no plans “at the moment” to replace him as host of gameshow ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’

The ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ host said he hates Meghan Markle ‘on a cellular level’ (Getty)

Speaking at a Broadcasting Press Guild event in London on Tuesday, Lygo said he had “no control” over what Mr Clarkson wrote in his newspaper columns, the BBC reports.

“We hire him as a consummate broadcaster of the most famous quiz on television, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” he said.

“So it’s not quite in our wheelhouse but I don’t know what he was thinking when he wrote that. It was awful.”

More than 20,800 people have complained about the article, which was published in The Sun on December 16, making it reportedly the most complained about article in British media history.

The publisher removed the online column in which Clarkson said he hated the Royal “on a cellular” level and dreams about how people would throw “excrement” at her in the streets, on Monday, at his request.

More than 60 MPs have signed a letter put forward by Conservative MP Caroline Nokes which demanded that the Sun take action against Clarkson.

His column, which was published on Sunday, was even opposed by Clarkson’s daughter, Emily, who came out to say she “stands against everything” her dad said.

Clarkson on Monday tweeted that he was “horrified” by the amount of “hurt” he had caused and promised to be more careful in future. The comment was criticised for not including an apology.

In the letter addressed to The Sun’s editor, Victoria Newton, Nokes and other MPs demanded that the newspaper take action against the Clarkson.

I welcome Jeremy Clarkson's acknowledgement that he has caused hurt #notanapology– but an editorial process allowed his column to be printed unchallenged pic.twitter.com/pFhdSGn071

— Caroline Nokes MP (@carolinenokes) December 20, 2022

Nokes said MPs demand action is taken against Clarkson immediately and that an “unreserved apology is issued”.

Due to the former Top Gear presenter comments about Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in the article, SNP MP John Nicolson also wrote to the ITV chief executives saying Clarkson should “not be allowed back on our screens.”

Following grotesque comments made about the First Minster and The Duchess of Sussex, I do not believe Jeremy Clarkson should be allowed back on our screens. I've written to the Chief Executive of @ITV. pic.twitter.com/oUnc3OvhKQ

— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 (@MrJohnNicolson) December 19, 2022

In a statement on Tuesday evening, IPSO said: “IPSO has received more than 20,800 complaints (5pm, 20 December 2022) about an opinion piece on the Duchess and Duke of Sussex written by Jeremy Clarkson and published by The Sun on Friday, 16 December 2022.

“We will follow our usual processes to examine the complaints we have received. This will take longer than usual because of the volume of complaints.

“Ipso works to uphold editorial standards by deciding whether the Editors’ Code of Practice has been breached in individual cases; monitoring trends in editorial standards; and making interventions to improve standards.

“Using the Editors’ Code of Practice, we examine the complaints we receive and try to seek a resolution between the complainant and publication.”

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