Jeremy Vine was put on the spot about his salary of more than £700,000 by a former miner who rang his radio show yesterday as BBC stars were made to squirm over their pay packets. Celebrities including Gary Lineker and Nick Knowles pointed to higher salaries paid by privately owned broadcasters, while Dan Walker had to explain that he only earns more than female BBC Breakfast hosts because he is also paid for other work across the corporation.
Female presenters whose salaries fell below the £150,000 threshold for publication drew attention to a lack of women among the corporation’s best-paid stairs using the Twitter hashtag #notonthelist. Only one woman — Claudia Winkleman, 45 — was in the top ten highest earners.
BBC stars questioned each other over their large salaries. John Humphrys, 73, who hosts Today on Radio 4 was asked live on the station by the BBC’s media editor if he would take a pay cut. Vine demanded that James Purnell, a senior BBC executive, explain whether the presenter’s own salary was justified.
Harry Jones rang the Jeremy Vine show to ask the presenter: “Are you embarrassed to pick up your pay cheque?”
Vine, 52, replied that he feels “very lucky every day”. Mr Jones insisted: “You spend your life asking people questions — I am asking you a direct question, ‘Do you think you and the rest of the BBC are overpaid?’ ” Vine, who earns £700,000 to £749,999, replied: “Some are.”
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Lineker, 56, pre-empted the publication of salaries by tweeting: “Happy BBC salary day. I blame my agent and the other TV channels that pay more. Now where did I put my tin helmet?” The Match of the Day host, who is paid between £1.75 million and £1.8 million, retweeted a comment describing the publication of salaries as “embarrassing and pointless” and a message from Lord Sugar, which read: “You are in a market where presenters are paid at going rates. ITV [and] Channel 4 pay more than the BBC. You have shown loyalty.”
Lineker posted: “The whole BBC salary exposure business is an absolute outrage . . .” adding, “How can Chris Evans [on £2,200,000 to £2,249,999] be on more than me?”
Knowles, 54, host of DIY SOS, who is paid between £300,000 and £350,000, thanked a tweeter and highlighted their message, which read: “You could go to a rival network for mega bucks — your loyalty speaks volumes.”
Walker, 40, is paid between £200,000 and £250,000, while his BBC Breakfast co-host Naga Munchetty, 42, is paid between £150,000 and £200,000, and fellow presenter Louise Minchin, 48, gets less than £150,000. After reports that a BBC executive had remarked on the discrepancy, Walker tweeted: “BBC exec should really know that we get exactly the same for BBC Breakfast. I have another job on Football Focus.”
Selina Scott, 66, a former BBC presenter, said the broadcaster operated “a pay league which discriminates against those who sit next to each other while doing the same job” and said she believed that misogyny was “deeply entrenched”, recalling that Frank Bough earned three times her salary as her BBC Breakfast Time co-host.
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Emily Maitlis, 46, who does not earn enough to appear on the list while her fellow Newsnight hosts Evan Davis, 55, and Kirsty Wark, 62, do, reposted a tweet from Woman’s Hour host Jane Garvey, 53, who suggested that efforts to redress the gender pay gap were not “going well”.
Charlotte Smith, 52, host of Countryfile and Farming Today, who also did not appear on the list, replied to Garvey: “I’m happy to accept a pay rise to help the BBC out with its gender pay gap problem.”
Evans, 51, was asked about earning more than 100 times more than many sound engineers who work in radio and said: “What about nurses?”
Catherine Shipton, 60, who gets between £150,000 and £200,000 for playing Lisa Duffin in Casualty, retweeted a post from the author Philip Pullman, who said criticism of the BBC was down to “malevolent” media rivals.
A number of stars who are paid under £150,000 voluntarily revealed their salaries. Chris Mason said that he was paid £60,000 as political correspondent.