Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said on Tuesday: “These allegations are the latest in a long line of reported abuses of power in an industry where we have known for so long that the power imbalances are huge.
“Russell Brand’s eventual conviction was a stark reminder that we are still far too reliant on the courage of brave women who choose to come forward despite knowing they will pay a heavy price and may not be believed – and a handful of persistent journalists who risk everything to tell their stories.
“Women must feel safe in their jobs, whistleblowers must be protected, and those who abuse their position must no longer be able to hide behind it.”
Downing Street earlier called the allegations “deeply troubling”.
In the ITV documentary revealing the allegations, Jonathan Ross is pictured at an event also attended by a woman who later made accusations about the conduct of Walliams.
In his statement, Ross also addressed a joke he made at a comedy awards show in 2004, in which the punchline suggested Walliams would be “going home” with a 15-year-old.
Ross acknowledged the controversial quip and described it as “tasteless”.
He added: “This joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards script writing team and I believed that the punchline was a reference to the fact he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect.
“Had I had any reason to suspect that it might be referring to actual events, I would not only have refused to use it, but I would not have felt comfortable continuing a personal or professional relationship with him.”
Ross and Brand were also widely criticised for leaving lewd voicemails for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, the grandfather of Georgina Baillie with whom Brand was in a consensual relationship in the mid-2000s, during a BBC Radio 2 broadcast.
Brand was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, and the Metropolitan Police has confirmed several people have approached them about the disgraced star since his conviction.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Lilly Creightmore, who has alleged Walliams “groomed” her as a teenager, said she was “angry” at his behaviour.
She said that Walliams invited her to move in with him while she was “in between living situations”. She was 18 at the time. She “felt instantly pressured to share a bed with him” but told him she was not interested in him in a romantic way.
After about a week of refusing Walliams’s advances, Creightmore said “he started to become very moody and rude and cold”.
According to ITV, Walliams says he did not act inappropriately and did not “target” her because she was “vulnerable” or “young”.
TV agent Dermot McNamara, who has represented someone allegedly groomed by Walliams, told BBC Newsnight he had informed “authorities and broadcasters” about Walliams’s alleged “inappropriate behaviour” but no action was taken.
Walliams denies all allegations, and in a statement to journalists shared by the Guardian said he was “not a sexual predator” and had not “broken the law”.
He acknowledged that “at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with” and said he regretted not always taking “people’s feelings properly into account”.
