Phillip Schofield is much less fashionable amongst Britons than Chinese president Xi Jinping, a brand new ballot exhibits. The survey of two,074 British adults invited folks to say whether or not they had a constructive or unfavorable opinion of a spread of figures.

For Mr Schofield, 49 % of these surveyed mentioned they held a unfavorable opinion whereas the determine for Xi was 44 %, in line with the ballot by J.L. Partners.

The 61-year-old resigned from ITV final month and was dropped by his expertise company YMU after admitting to an "unwise but not illegal" affair with a youthful male colleague.

Holly Willoughby mentioned this week she felt "shaken, troubled, let down and worried" as she made her return to This Morning within the wake of her former co-star's departure from the ITV present.

In interviews final week, Mr Schofield advised The Sun and BBC Willoughby didn't know concerning the affair.

The hottest determine general is King Charles III with 43 % holding a constructive and 24 % a unfavorable view.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is essentially the most unpopular determine with simply 4 % viewing him positively whereas 86 % view him negatively, the ballot exhibits.

Fellow celebrities and a few politicians have proven assist for Mr Schofield since news of the affair emerged.

Jeremy Clarkson mentioned he discovered the criticism of Mr Schofield "weird" and had "never seen a witch hunt like it".

Writing in The Sunday Times, Mr Clarkson mentioned he doesn't know Mr Schofield and has "no skin in the fight", however was commenting on the outrage which adopted the saga.

He wrote: "He maintains that his lover was over the age of consent when their relationship became physical, but that hasn't silenced the howls of disgust."

He added: "I've never seen a witch-hunt like it, and what baffles me most of all is that, as things stand, no crime has been committed.

"I do not know him in any respect effectively and haven't any pores and skin within the sport, however it appears to me he's solely responsible of being what he mentioned he was: homosexual."

LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the outrage against Mr Schofield has "greater than a whiff of homophobia" to it.

The former Labour politician said the pair's relationship had been "forged as sordid and abusive" while other high-profile heterosexual relationships with significant age differences had not been met with such outrage.

Mr Schofield told The Sun he and his former lover had met when the man was 15 and he was "perhaps" in his mid-50s, but added the affair began after the man started working at ITV and had been "consensual".

ITV has instructed Jane Mulcahy KC, of Blackstone Chambers, to "perform an exterior evaluation to ascertain the info".

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said this week she is "more than happy" ITV has instructed Ms Mulcahy to carry out the review.

Ms Frazer said: "I believe there's an incident that is occurred. I'm very, more than happy that ITV are taking it critically.

"I'm very pleased that they wrote to me, and to the committee, I'm very pleased that they've appointed a KC to investigate the position."

J.L. Partners polled a consultant pattern of two,074 British adults between June 5 and 6 with fieldwork accomplished on-line.

The outcomes had been weighted by gender, age and area to be consultant of the inhabitants with the margin of error +/- 2.2 %.

J.L. Partners is a member of the British Polling Council and a Company Partner of the Market Research Society.