Our stars are not overpaid says new BBC boss

MORE than 100 BBC stars earn more than the Prime Minister, and at least two take home over £1million.

But the corporation’s new chairman Sir David Clementi claims they are not overpaid, saying the broadcaster needs to ‘hold on to people with extraordinary talent’.

He suggested that ITV and Channel 4 pay their stars even more.

‘People expect to see top talent on the BBC and I don’t think you will see evidence of us overpaying people. It’s a pity Channel 4 and ITV are not producing their numbers at the same time.

‘It would be very interesting and I don’t think we would come out badly in that comparison,’ Sir David said in an interview with the Financial Times.

The BBC is being forced by the Government to publish pay details for its highest-earning stars later this month. It will disclose the salaries of the 100 or so stars who take home £150,000 – PM Theresa May’s salary – or more, published in £50,000 salary bands.

Alongside some eye-watering sums, the disclosures are expected to expose an embarrassing gender pay gap, and spark fury among presenters who find out they are paid less than their peers.

The BBC is also worried about a public backlash from licence fee-payers – especially in a year when the annual charge has risen from £145.50 to £147. Some of the biggest earners are well chronicled. Match of the Day host Gary Lineker is on more than £1milllion, according to reports.

Meanwhile, Fiona Bruce, the newsreader and Antiques Roadshow host, is said to be on more than £500,000 a year, and Radio 4 Today programme host Nick Robinson is understood to receive between £300,000 and £350,000.

The station’s PM host Eddie Mair reportedly makes as much as £425,000. But others, such as BBC1 newsreader Huw Edwards, have done better at keeping their pay under wraps.

Viewers are also likely to raise eyebrows at less well-known faces, such as newsreader Jane Hill, set to be exposed as big earners.

The corporation has spent years trying to keep their pay secret, claiming that publishing star salaries would force its pay bill upwards as rivals tried to poach its top-name presenters.

Now it is set to cap news presenters’ and journalists’ salaries following a review of pay in news. Insiders claim that the level will be set at £380,000. The BBC has also been shifting presenters off its public books, and onto the accounts of its production arm BBC Studios so that it can keep them a secret in future. It has been allowed to keep BBC Studios’ numbers private ever since it was split off as a commercial business in April.

Sir David Clementi became BBC chairman in the same month as the BBC Trust was scrapped for being ineffectual.

It was replaced by a combination of Ofcom and a new unitary board.

The broadcaster said last summer that seven of its staff were paid more than £500,000 in the year to April 2016. The top two or three earned £3.8million between them.

The BBC received £3.7billion in public funding last year, but is under pressure to find £800million of savings by 2020 to fund a free licence fee for over-75s.

‘It’s a pity C4 and ITV aren’t giving figures’