Eddie: I offered to take a pay cut
RADIO presenter Eddie Mair has denied that he refused to take a salary cut at the BBC and says deciding to leave for a new job was not down to “pay problems”.
The award-winning broadcaster, who is quitting as host of Radio 4’s PM evening programme after 20 years, said he had offered to reduce his salary in the wake of the BBC’s gender pay dispute last year.
Mair, 52, is to take over a new show at commercial station LBC.
He was revealed last year to be one of the BBC’s top earners, with a salary between £300,000 and £349,999.
Male colleagues including John Humphrys, Huw Edwards and Jon Sopel have now agreed to pay cuts.
Mair said it “tickled” him that he was “apparently refusing” to reduce his own salary.
He wrote in Radio Times: “None of my thinking has been influenced by the BBC’s pay problems. I’d offered, in writing, to take a cut.
“The first article appeared before we’d even discussed pay.
“Later it was said I was staying off work in some kind of protest.
“In fact, as RT readers know, I was in hospital trying to avoid sepsis.”
Mair said that the BBC had “begged” him to “please go sooner” after he revealed his plans to leave, “but I insisted on working my notice.”
He said that “another employer came along” a year ago, before the salaries of top BBC talent earning more than £150,000 were revealed.
“I didn’t want to be counting the days to retirement.
“Maybe I should give else a whirl while can.”
Mair will relinquish the helm of PM on August 17, and will take up his new role at LBC in September.
He announced he was leaving the BBC on Sunday, telling listeners: “It’s 31 years since I joined the BBC, 25 years since I first presented PM, and 20 since it became my main gig.
“I thought this was the appropriate moment to step out and give someone else a chance, before I’m so old my sentences make no lasagne.” something I still