Phillip Schofield will no longer be the face of Webuyanycar adverts on TV - but the company insists the decision was made before the recent 'queue jump' row.
The This Morning presenter has faced a huge backlash, along with co-host Holly Willoughby, after they were accused of jumping the long queue to see the Queen lying in state.
The company is shooting new ads next week without him and he no longer appears on its website, Birmingham Live reports.
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A petition to see the presenting duo axed from This Morning has reached more than 75,000 signatures. But Webuyanycar insisted that their change in direction was nothing to do with the queue-jump row. A spokesperson for the company told MailOnline: "Webuyanycar and Phillip Schofield agreed earlier this year that the webuyanycar/Phillip Schofield campaign would come to an end in 2022, having worked together for over five years. The decision was made prior to any recent stories regarding Phillip."
It comes after ITV Chief Executive Dame Carolyn McCall confirmed that the co-presenters are safe in their jobs following the petition. Asked what they had done wrong, she said: "Honestly, nothing. Honestly. They did have accreditation. Lots of people saying they didn’t. They were sent by This Morning to do a piece for September 20, which ran.
"They were to interview people inside and outside. They didn’t displace anyone in the queue. And they’ve been very misrepresented, actually. And that’s why we made a statement. Unusually, we made a statement to say all of those things. But it does show you how things spread and how misinformation just spreads. And it is really horrible for them."
Carolyn added: "I think they’re highly relevant and still very topical, and I think the majority of their viewers love watching them. But there is a very shrill kind of voice against and it will hurt them. It’s hard. You imagine yourself in the eye of the storm like this, where you’re trying to say you’ve done nothing wrong and all the noise around you is saying that you have. It’s difficult to handle."
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