11:48 am, May 30, 2023
Arnold Clark won’t be renewing its sponsorship of This Morning following the Phillip Schofield scandal.
The UK’s most profitable car dealership, which began a multi-year deal with the ITV show in September 2021 as its main sponsor, has issued a short statement saying: ‘Our existing sponsorship of This Morning will end this autumn as planned.’
It comes in the wake of used car firm WeBuyAnyCar dropping all adverts featuring the presenter from its YouTube channel.
On Friday, Schofield admitted to the Daily Mail that he lied to ITV as well as to his lawyers, talent agency and co-star of 14 years Holly Willoughby about a relationship he’d had with a younger man.
According to Mail Online, ITV is poised to lose £2m in contracts. But an ITV spokesperson told sister publication Metro: ‘This is untrue. This Morning’s current show sponsorship runs until the autumn and no sponsors have pulled out of ITV.’
However, The Sun reported a source as saying: ‘There is a lot of speculation about This Morning’s future and some staff are concerned about their jobs.
‘Phil’s admission of deceit has plunged ITV into a crisis which it has never been faced with before.
‘It is widely known internally that they have lost over £2m in sponsorship deals since Phil’s affair became public.’
‘Brands do not feel ITV is a safe bet at the moment. ITV are doing all they can to claim back control but it will not be an easy task.
‘Guests have been dropping out left, right and centre. It is like a house of cards that is crumbling.
‘This Morning is seen as toxic right now and people do not want to be associated with it.’
Schofield, though, has posted a statement on Instagram to deny claims that there is a culture of toxicity on the show.
