Jeremy Kyle producers admit lie detector tests may have given the wrong results

People who failed lie detector tests on The Jeremy Kyle Show may have been telling the truth, producers have admitted to MPs.

Tom McLennan, one of the executive producers, was forced to admit that he had no idea how accurate the tests were.

Graham Stanier, the show's director of aftercare, said he was "naive about the figures" but: "Some people will fail this test yet they will be telling the truth." He added: "I totally accept that I don't know the percentage of success or the percentage of failure."

The team were called before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee as part of an inquiry launched when the show was cancelled by ITV following the death of a guest. Steve Dymond was found dead a week after failing a lie detector test on the show.

McLennan told the committee: "We have always made it very, very clear to the viewers and participants that the lie detector is not 100 per cent accurate. We have always felt that was incredible important."

Asked to state the accuracy range of the tests, McLennan repeatedly failed to provide statistics. "If you ask different people, you get different answers," he said. "I don't have the information in front of me."

He added that he was "not a lie detector expert".

Damian Collins, chairman of the committee, said McLennan's lack of knowledge was "astonishing".

McLennan said all guests had given "informed consent" to appearing on the show but MP Jo Stevens told him: "How can they give informed consent if they don't know the accuracy? Why is the premise of the entire show based on an exercise that is obviously flawed? The premise of the show is fake, isn't it?"

The commitee was shown a video of a Jeremy Kyle Show episode in which the presenter branded a woman a "liar" when she failed a test asking if she had cheated on her partner. She protested her innocence and her partner was shown crying backstage.

Carolyn McCall, the ITV chief executive, defended the show and Kyle’s behaviour. She told MPs: “Jeremy believed more in these tests but he also knew they weren’t 100 per cent accurate. On occasion he would say, ‘this test says you are lying’ but that was his style.”

The tests were not carried out under controlled conditions but in a room at the Holiday Inn next to the ITV studios in Salford.

The committee heard that nobody who worked on the programme was registered with the Health and Care Professions Council and there was no psychologist as part of the team. Mr Stanier said he had studied “modules of psychology” but his qualification was in psychotherapy.

The show was cancelled in May following an investigation into the episode that featured Mr Dymond. But Ms McCall said she stood by the programme, which ran for 14 years and 3,000 episodes. The cancellation “was not about the show in general. We took a decision based on that one episode,” she said.

Kyle has declined to appear before the committee.