MPs: All BBC stars on more than PM should have pay made public

EVERY BBC star who earns more than the Prime Minister should have their pay made public, MPs are demanding.

A damning report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee found ‘no good reason’ for details of presenters and executives who receive more than £143,000 a year to be hidden.

Publishing names and salaries would reduce suspicion the Corporation overpays staff, it said.

The BBC argues that disclosure could lead to a ‘poacher’s charter’ that would help its commercial rivals lure talent away. But the MPs said this was disingenuous, adding that the salary levels are common knowledge in the industry.

At present, the BBC must reveal the salaries of its top executives but only releases what it pays its top talent in pay brackets with no names. Earlier this year the Government White Paper on the future of the BBC proposed that the broadcaster should identify which stars earn more than the director-general’s salary of £450,000.

That would mean some nine stars – including Graham Norton, Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker and Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans – would have had their pay revealed.

However, the committee has gone further by recommending that the threshold be brought down to the same salary as the Prime Minister.

A list of 43 BBC celebrities reportedly being paid more than £ 143,000 was heavily denied by the BBC after it was published by a news website in May. Lineker is said to earn

‘Serious concerns’

£1.8million, while Evans is reportedly on £600,000 and was getting an extra £125,000 an episode for Top Gear.

Jeremy Vine, the Radio 2 DJ and Eggheads host, is understood to be on £800,000 and Strictly Come Dancing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkle- man on over £500,000. Fiona Bruce, the newsreader and presenter of Antiques Roadshow and Fake Or Fortune, is thought to earn £500,000.

MP Damian Collins, acting chairman of the committee, said: ‘All these salaries are paid by the licence fee-payer, whether they are for broadcasters or BBC executives. Why should there be different rules for each? It’s disingenuous to say confidentiality is needed to prevent poaching when in general everyone in the industry knows what everyone else is getting paid.’

The committee also raised ‘serious concerns’ about the appointment of Rona Fairhead as chairman of the BBC’s new Unitary Board, which will replace the BBC Trust. Miss Fairhead, who has chaired the Trust since August 2014, was asked by Downing Street to stay on and run the new board until 2018. The lack of recruitment process was criticised by SNP MP John Nicholson, who said last month the appointment had ‘broken rules’.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We cut our bill for talent pay by £8million last year, but creating a poacher’s charter by publishing the salaries of individual presenters and actors wouldn’t be in the interests of licence fee-payers who say they want the best talent on the BBC.’

A BBC Trust spokesman said: ‘The chairman underwent a rigorous and open appointment process.’