Beat The Chasers’ Mark Labbett ‘punches’ Jenny Ryan as ‘karma’ for Paul Sinha controversy

Beat The Chasers star Mark Labbett has explained why he jokingly punched Jenny Ryan on the launch episode of the new series, explaining that it’s ‘karma’ for the controversy with Paul Sinha at the start of the year.

In January, Jenny, otherwise known as ‘The Vixen’, made headlines when she appeared to ‘punch’ fellow Chaser Paul for getting a question about Star Wars wrong in the second series of The Chase spin-off Beat The Chasers.

Paul, also known as ‘The Sinnerman’, cleared up what happened later on, saying that he didn’t even notice at the time and that it was ‘nothing’.

While there was clearly no bad blood between the Chasers over the incident, Mark, who also goes by the name ‘The Beast’, wasn’t going to let Jenny forget about it when she made a blunder on the latest episode of Beat The Chasers.

When the Chasers went up against Olympic athlete Christine Ohuruogu on the celebrity version of the show, one of the questions they were asked by Bradley Walsh was the religion in which a rabbi is a spiritual teacher.

Although Mark hit his button first, Jenny was quicker than him to say the answer, replying: ‘Judaism.’

However, as the wrong Chaser gave the answer, it didn’t count and Christine ended up winning £30,000 for her chosen charity, Body and Soul.

When Christine walked off after her victorious performance, Mark announced: ‘Before we go any further, I’ve got something to do,’ before lightly punching Jenny on the arm.

As Jenny pretended to grimace, Bradley asked what was going on, to which Mark replied: ‘Wrong person answered! And wrong person answers kill you.’

In a tweet shared shortly afterwards, he added: ‘#BeatTheChasers for those who wondered why I punched @jenlion on the arm, it was karma for her punching @paulsinha in same situation last series :).’

Several Beat The Chasers viewers have been questioning why Paul is absent from the new series.

In a tweet posted earlier this month, he explained that he was unwell during filming and so couldn’t take part.

The remaining five Chasers, including the newest Chaser Darragh Ennis, are all sitting on the panel throughout the series.

Beat The Chasers is available to watch on ITV Player.

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