Quango drops Jeremy Kyle show sponsorship deal after 'bear-baiting' charge

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Earlier this week it was revealed that Learndirect had an advertising deal costing £500,000 with the show. This led to claims that taxpayers' cash was subsidising trash TV.

Ufi, the organisation which oversees Learndirect, had declared it had no plans to end the deal.

But yesterday it announced: "The board of Ufi has taken the decision that continued sponsorship would not protect and enhance the strength and reputation of Learndirect, one of the country's most wellknown names in adult learning."

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The Jeremy Kyle show has seen a sponsorship deal pulled after the 'bear-baiting' row

A spokesman for the Central Office of Information, which managed the contract, said: "The criticism of the show - sparked by judge Alan Berg's remarks earlier this week - means that both Ufi and COI consider it no longer appropriate for Learndirect to be associated with it."

Learndirect provides on-line learningand advice for those in work. It has claimed that 50 to 60 per cent of its target group watch Jeremy Kyle.

Judge Berg called the daytime talkshow a "morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people" after a spurned husband was provoked into head-butting his wife's lover in front of the studio audience.

Security guard David Staniforth, 45, from Chesterfield, admitted assaulting bus driver Larry Mahoney during filming, although the sequence was never screened.

Judge Berg fined him £300 at Manchester magistrates' court but said: "The provocation involved seems to be paramount. The producers should be in the dock with you."

Tory MP David Davies had written to John Denham, the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, protesting about public money being linked to such a programme.

Mr Davies said: "What has that show got to do with education? How many people watching Jeremy Kyle are going to go off and get a degree or something?"