- Andrew Bridgen has called for “urgent” inquiry into bullying claims
- Bridgen has also asked for BBC managers to be investigated
- Says BBC response to claims has been “lacklustre”
- Wants proof Evans has not breached BBC anti-bullying rules
- Says “BBC’s reputation is at stake” in “post-Savile environment”
UPDATE: 12.45pm – Andrew Bridgen tells me he has also sent his letter to BBC chief Lord Hall.
An MP has asked the BBC Trust to investigate allegations against Top Gear host Chris Evans “as a matter of urgency”.
Conservative backbencher Andrew Bridgen has written to BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead requesting that she formally examine the circumstances surrounding the sudden departure of Lisa Clark, the Top Gear producer who left the BBC following an alleged clash with Evans last December.
MORE: Chris Evans Faces Nudity And Bullying Claims
Bridgen has also asked Ms Fairhead to find out more about an incident last month in which Evans allegedly shouted at a junior colleague at Radio 2 with such force that she was left in tears.
Both claims have fuelled allegations of the presenter’s bullying and unreasonable behaviour ahead of the new series of Top Gear, scheduled to begin on BBC2 and BBC America on May 29 with co-host Matt LeBlanc
Evans denies any wrongdoing.
Just finished in Venice with this crew. pic.twitter.com/l4gjJCuymu
— Matt LeBlanc (@Matt_LeBlanc) March 22, 2016
In the letter to the BBC’s governing body, a copy of which has been seen by Heat Street, Bridgen said the Trust must also explore whether “BBC managers have properly investigated these matters themselves.”
He claimed their response so far has appeared “lacklustre”.
He writes: “I would like the Trust to investigate Chris Evans because it seems to me to be very important that as part of that inquiry, an independent view is taken by the Trust as to whether BBC managers have properly examined these matters themselves. I am given to understand that Lisa Clark created a “paper trail” of evidence about Mr Evans’s unreasonable conduct before she left the BBC, some of which she shared with BBC managers. Can you please find out what these managers established about the circumstances leading to the abrupt departure of Ms Clark from the BBC? Were the allegations regarding the (so far unnamed) Radio 2 staff member whom Chris Evans apparently so upset properly scrutinised by the BBC’s managers? Has Chris Evans been properly questioned about these matters? How do the allegations against Mr Evans square with [BBC chief] Tony Hall’s zero-tolerance approach to bullying?”
Today feels like a good day for a drive. #TopGear spotted on the Sunset Strip in LA! pic.twitter.com/xqjVffLF4P
— Top Gear BBCAmerica (@TopGear_BBCA) May 5, 2016
Yesterday, Heat Street reported that Clare Pizey, the producer brought in to replace Lisa Clark on Top Gear, apparently has a contractual safeguard meaning that a third party must be present at any meeting she attends with Evans.
A source said: “She was told she had to take on the Top Gear brief so made sure she protected herself.”
Heat Street has also revealed in recent days that Evans’ former business partner, John Revell, said he believes Evans is “out of control” and the bullying claims against him should be investigated by the BBC.
Mr Revell accused BBC bosses of “utter hypocrisy” for not investigating the star and called them “spineless”.
At the weekend another former colleague who worked with Evans in the 1990s told Heat Street how Evans “relentlessly” exposed his penis to her – sometimes while aroused – “almost every day” for two years.
The woman, who requested anonymity, described Evans as a “bully” who had also “grabbed” her breasts.
MORE: Matt LeBlanc’s Top Gear Time Bomb
Bridgen’s letter, which he said he would send to Fairhead today, concludes: “It is common knowledge that Top Gear generates a lot of money for the BBC each year. It would be very unfortunate if any licence fee payer perceived that this golden goose had got in the way of a proper examination of the facts by the BBC and BBC Trust.”
He added: “I believe that the BBC’s reputation is at stake over Mr Evans’s alleged conduct – past and recent – and I also believe the BBC’s apparently lacklustre response to these allegations could prove costly if the public is denied the right to know what is going on. In the post-Savile environment, I would have thought this is precisely the sort of issue the BBC Trust was created to examine as robustly and objectively as possible without delay.”
The BBC did not immediately comment this morning.
