Four of the BBC’s leading male presenters have accepted pay cuts as the corporation seeks to defuse the gender pay row.
Huw Edwards, John Humphrys, Jeremy Vine and Jon Sopel have all agreed to reduce their salaries, the BBC said this morning. Nick Robinson, Humphrys’ colleague on Today, is in negotiations to follow suit.
Yesterday it was revealed that Humphrys had volunteered to take a third pay cut in two years, dropping his salary to about £250,000. Figures released last summer put his total pay, including for presenting Mastermind, at £600,000.
Vine, the Radio 2 presenter, earned between £700,000-£750,000 last year and Edwards took home between £550,000-£599,000 for presenting the BBC News. Sopel, the North America editor, had a salary of between £200,000-£249,000.
The four have agreed to pay cuts “either formally or in principle”, the BBC announced last night. The size of the reductions was not disclosed.
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Robinson is understood to be in talks about pay cuts. His salary of £250,000-£300,000 puts him second only to Humphrys in the Today pay rankings, ahead of his colleagues Mishal Husain (£200,000-£249,999), Justin Webb (£150,000-£200,000) and Sarah Montague (under £150,000).
Last night The Guardian reported that Tracey Crouch, the new loneliness minister, had refused an invitation to go on the Today programme in protest against Humphrys’ disparaging comments about Carrie Gracie, who resigned as China editor over unequal pay. He was recorded making light of the pay row in an off-air conversation with Sopel that was subsequently leaked.
The disparity has contributed to tensions on the programme, with Webb publicly noting that “Nick is paid £100,000 or so a year more than me essentially to do the same job”.
A BBC management source said: “There are discussions with a range of news presenters to reduce their pay. The market is not the same in news as it was ten years ago. The deals struck then have not stood the test of time.”
Robinson, 54, the BBC’s former political editor, was poached from ITV in 2005.
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The downward pressure on newsroom salaries should mean that the BBC’s best-known journalists end up earning less than their counterparts at commercial broadcasters, management believes. Senior figures are understood to be grateful to Humphrys, 74, for proposing such a significant cut. One said that he was “setting a moral example for the whole of the BBC”.
It is not clear whether other presenters have volunteered to take reductions or are requiring persuasion. A source said that the negotiations were taking place in a “co-operative environment”.
A report into presenters’ salaries by PWC will be published next week. The Times revealed this week that the BBC women campaign group had informed Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the director-general, that they would reject the findings in protest against the methodology and terms of reference. Many fear it will be used as a justification not to act. Lord Hall is due to appear before MPs on Wednesday to explain how the BBC plans to ensure equal pay.
The BBC denies gender discrimination and has promised to close the gender pay gap by 2020.