65,000 sign petition to axe Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield from This Morning pair over ‘Queuegate’

Presenters have faced a huge backlash following claims they skipped the queue to see the Queen lying in state
Tina Campbell23 September 2022
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A petition calling for Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby to be axed from their This Morning show in the wake of “Queuegate” on Friday topped 65,000 signatures.

The ITV presenters have faced criticism after photos emerged in which they appeared to be skipping the queue to see the Queen lying in state.

The pair assured people they “would never jump the queue” on Tuesday and said that as members of the media they did not have to join it as they were reporting on the event., but this has failed to shut down criticism of the duo.

The original target of the online petition was 15,000 names. Organiser Laura Harrison said if enough people sign “we can show ITV the public do matter.”

In another development it is claimed the pair were “heckled” as they walked past public queue to see Queen’s coffin - which ITV has denied. Joe Tomkins, a 41-year-old who travelled from Nottingham fto pay his respects, has now given his account after seeing Willoughby and Schofield as they arrived.

Mr Tomkins had travelled to London on Thursday night, arriving in the queue at 1am on Friday and ended up waiting for 14 hours.

Holly Willoughby and Philip Scofield were accused of skipping the 12hr+ queue to visit the late monarch
BBC

“We were in the zig-zag line right at the end of the queue when we saw Phil and Holly. They walked straight past us all and a few people started shouting.

“People were saying, ‘Oi, Phil, Holly, get to the back of the queue’,” he told The Sun.

Adding that “there was a real hatred for them”.

An ITV spokesperson told the Standard: “This account is untrue and is not a fair and accurate representation of what happened that day.

“Phillip and Holly were escorted by government staff to work from the media gallery. They did not file past the Queen’s coffin and were there alongside a host of other broadcasters and national media in a professional capacity.”

They added: “To the contrary, Phillip and Holly stopped to meet many that greeted them and had selfies. There was no ill will at all towards them.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in