BBC Emily gets big rise to match her co-host

WHEN Emily Maitlis failed to make the BBC’s ‘rich list’, she became a symbol of the broadcaster’s gender pay gap.

Now the Newsnight star, 47, has set a precedent by winning a major pay rise. The Mail can reveal she is now on equal footing with co-host Evan Davis.

Miss Maitlis used to earn under £150,000 while Mr Davis gets between £250,000 and £300,000 for his work on Newsnight and the less frequent Dragons’ Den.

Miss Maitlis made a stinging joke about the gap in a speech while rival TV bosses lined up lucrative job offers for her.

Now a BBC pay rise is thought to have

put her on over £200,000. The pay gap emerged when the BBC published salary details of presenters on £150,000 or more and the top seven were all men.

The agenda-setting rise for Miss Maitlis will alarm critics who say the male stars’ salaries should be slashed instead.

Comment – Page 18 Marr: I don’t deserve my salary – Page 54

Symbol: Newsnight’s Emily was on less pay