Those BBC pay row jokes? Blame Humphrys, not me
A LEAKED tape left them both red- faced after they appeared to mock the BBC’s gender pay row.
But Jon Sopel has insisted John Humphrys was responsible for the crass conversation – and even claimed he tried to shut him up.
The North America editor, 59, and the outspoken Today programme host joked about the pay row in the tape in January.
In the off-air chat, Humphrys, 74, who now makes up to £409,999, boasted that he earned ‘more than anybody else’ even after taking a pay cut. Referring to Carrie Gracie, who resigned as China editor after it emerged that she was earning tens of thousands less than male counterparts, Humphrys teased Sopel by asking him how much of his salary he was ‘prepared to hand over to [her] to keep her’.
Sopel, who is on up to £239,999, replied: ‘Obviously if we are talking about the scope for the greatest redistribution, I’ll have to come back and say, “Well yes Mr Humphrys, but...” ’ But discussing the chat yesterday, Sopel said it was ‘nuts’. He added: ‘John is a big figure. I’m quite a senior journalist, but when you’re with him, you are in the court of King John. If you listen, you can hear that I’m trying to shut it down.
‘I’m thinking: Stop it, stop it. I was about to go to bed, and suddenly I was thrown a curveball.’
Sopel also said he thought the BBC needed to have ‘aggressive impartiality’ when covering world events. ‘When we think our judgment is right, we should say: The overwhelming evidence is that this will happen. We’ve got to be bold,’ he told The Observer.