Pesto ‘set to quit BBC after all’ in £750k deal
AFTER a week o f blandishments from the BBC, including a personal plea by the Director-General, Lord Hall, Robert Peston is poised to leave the Corporation anyway, I understand.
Despite suggestions that he had wangled an improved offer from the Beeb, my sources say floppy-haired Pesto was last night on the brink of accepting a highly lucrative offer to become ITV’s political editor.
As part of the deal, worth a rumoured £750,000 a year, he would present his own talk show with his name in the title.
‘He’s taking the money and running,’ one observer tells me. ‘He’s our Cashley Cole.’ ‘ Cashley’ was the derogatory nickname given to Arsenal defender Ashley Cole after he quit the club for a bigger contract at Chelsea following a prolonged wrangle.
Egocentric economics editor Peston has created much resentment among colleagues after it was leaked that he had received a job offer from ITV.
The BBC tried to keep him by offering him a presenting role on Newsnight, much to the annoyance of its anchorman, Evan Davis.
By the end of last week, Peston, who is known for his strangulated vowels and stuttering delivery, was being publicly mocked by BBC colleagues.
Eddie Mair made a spoof plea on Radio 4’s PM programme to keep him, claiming he would ‘sell my kidney if it increases the amount of money the BBC can afford to offer’.
News At Ten presenter Huw Edwards declared: ‘I can’t contemplate a future in the BBC without Robert Peston ranting on endlessly about his earth-shattering scoops.’
Meanwhile, Just A Minute host Nicholas Parsons joked that Peston’s ability to talk with ‘clarity and smoothness’ made him the perfect candidate for a guest slot on his show.
Peston’s rumoured pay package for moving will surprise some media commentators, as he has railed against fat-cat salaries in the past.
‘I genuinely don’t understand people who want more money than they can spend,’ he declared in 2012. ‘I have a psychological problem with that.’ Peston added that he appreciated why people needed enough for basic needs, such as ‘to keep warm’.
The BBC declined to comment on the ongoing saga last night and it remains to be seen if bosses will make one last-ditch attempt to keep him.