‘Women let gender pay gap happen by not asking for rise’

FEMALE BBC stars complaining that they are paid less than their male colleagues “let it happen” by failing to ask for a pay rise, the Government’s equality tsar has suggested.

Sir Philip Hampton, who co-chairs a government-commissioned review into the treatment of women in the UK’S biggest companies, said he had “never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise”.

It comes after the most famous female BBC stars launched an open revolt against bosses and issued a public challenge to the BBC to “act now” to close the gender pay gap. Figures revealed that women account for just a third of the BBC’S biggest earners, with only one woman in the top nine.

MPS said the comments by Sir Philip, chairman of pharmaceutical firm Glaxosmithkline, were “astonishingly illjudged” and “heap insult on injustice”.

In an interview with the London Evening Standard, Sir Philip said: “[The female broadcasters] are saying: ‘how did we let this happen?’ I suspect they let it happen because they weren’t doing much about it. I’ve had lots of women come to talk to me about their careers. I have never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise. There isn’t a list long enough for the men who have asked.” He said that he believes that many chief executives would tell the same story.

Sir Philip is leading a campaign to get more female executives into top business jobs. He is the non-executive chairman of Glaxosmithkline where he earns £700,000-a-year.