BEEB TOP JOBS STILL GOING TO POSH RECRUITS
THE BBC is failing in its mission to hand more top jobs to people from state schools.
The corporation vowed to become more diverse after studies showed senior roles were disproportionately filled by those with a public school background.
But data uncovered by the Sunday Mirror suggests Auntie is still far too posh.
While only 7% of people in the UK are privately educated, they still occupy 21% of BBC jobs that earn more than £150,000 a year.
Among those at the broadcaster earning less than £30,000, just 9% went to fee-paying schools.
In 2021 the number of privately educated people in senior leadership jobs rose 15%, from 68 to 78.
By contrast, the number from state schools working at the same level rose just 5%, from 172 to 180.
The BBC’s top post of Director General, on £525,000 a year, is held by Tim Davie – who went to Whitgift School, south London, where boarder fees can be up to £43,600 a year.
Charlotte Moore, the £402,000-a-year chief content officer, went to Wycombe Abbey girls’ school in Buckinghamshire, where day pupils pay £33,000 a year.
BBC Chairman Richard Sharp, a multi-millionaire ex-City banker, went to Merchant Taylors’ School, in north west London, where annual fees are currently £22,280.
He is paid £180,000 for the parttime role, but was last year said to have donated it to charity. Deborah Turness, soon to be £400,000-a-year head of BBC News, was a pupil at St Francis’ College, in Letchworth Garden City, where boarders pay £36,180.
Figures show 12% of BBC News staff are privately educated, including ex-political editor Laura Kuenssberg,
educated near Glasgow, and world affairs editor John Simpson.
Royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell, security correspondent Frank Gardner and Radio 4 news hosts Nick Robinson and Justin Webb also went to private schools.
The claim of bias came in 2018 when presenter Steph McGovern alleged a manager told her she was “too common” to be a BBC anchor.
She said there was a class pay gap at the BBC and that she would have been paid more if she had a more privileged background.
Steph, who went to Channel 4 a year later, said at the time: “What the BBC doesn’t do enough of is getting people from working class backgrounds. It’s just posh.”
Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, said: “It’s important that leaders in public service organisations are broadly representative, otherwise they become increasingly detached from the society they are intended to serve.”
The BBC said: “We’re increasing apprenticeships, investing in talent schemes, and we’ve set a target for 25% of staff to come from low socioeconomic backgrounds.”
They said Tim Davie’s school fees had been paid through a scholarship, and Chairman Richard Sharp was appointed by the Government.
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