‘Market forces’ argument does not add up, say ministers

Government attacks BBC defence that it has to pay huge salaries to stop stars defecting to rival channels

MINISTERS and MPS have attacked the BBC’S excuse that it has to pay its biggest stars hundreds of thousands of pounds every year to stop them switching to commercial rivals.

The BBC has experienced high-profile defections to ITV in the past, such as Morecambe and Wise switching channels for a more lucrative contract in the late Seventies.

But one ministerial source said: “I am not sure there are many people out there who will be paying Chris Evans more than he gets for doing what he currently does.

“Who [else] is going to pay Eddie Mair £300,000 a year? Nobody. For all the highly paid Radio 4 stars – Radio 4 is their only place. Where is Eddie Mair going to go?”

The source added: “The idea that the BBC has to pay money to retain them is a sign of a slightly weird dysfunction. This is public money – whether you like it or not.”

Philip Davies, a Conservative MP, said it was “a load of old nonsense” and “poppycock” that the stars would now be more vulnerable to being poached by rivals like ITV.

He said: “If I am an ITV executive and I want to sign one of these highly paid people I just ring up their agents and say ‘can you tell me what your person is paid and we can see if we can offer them more money to come over to ITV’.

“Publishing this information does not make any difference as to whether people of talent will be paid more somewhere else.”

Charles Walker, another Tory MP, said the BBC should “halve the sums” paid to the stars.

He added: “Where else can soap stars go where they can earn over £200,000 a year?”

Sir Craig Oliver, a former No10 director of communications and an ex-editor of the 10pm news bulletin on BBC One, also questioned whether there was a market for talent among news journalists.

Writing on Twitter before the list was published, he said stars like Gary Lineker “could get more elsewhere” but it was “hard to see that working much in news”.

He added: “In news, the BBC is a vast part of the market. In radio news and current affairs it’s almost the entire market.”

James Purnell, the director of radio at the BBC, was questioned by Mair, who himself was revealed to be paid up to £450,000 a year, on PM on

‘I am not sure there are many people out there who will be paying Chris Evans more than he gets’

Radio 4 hours after the figures were published.

Mr Mair asked him about “these Radio 4 presenters who get paid so much, where is the market place for them?”

Mr Purnell replied: “Is there a market for John Humphrys? Absolutely. Is there a market for Jeremy Vine? Absolutely.”

He added: “We are having approaches from Audible to take speech presenters the whole time. So it is absolutely not true to say there isn’t a market for our presenters, there is increasingly a market for speech radio. Where there is not a market we do pay less.”

However, Humphrys told the same programme that there was “absolutely nothing that justifies” up to £800,000 a year when compared with doctors’ and nurses’ salaries.

He added: “Compared with that sort of thing I am not worth tuppence ha’penny. However, we operate in a marketplace.”