All BBC’S top earners should reveal pay, says culture leader

BBC stars paid “off the books” must be forced to reveal their pay, the chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee has said.

Shows made by BBC Studios – including Strictly Come Dancing, Holby City and Flog It! – will be classed as “independent productions” in the next tax year, and the salaries of their top stars will be omitted from a list of the corporation’s high earners. The BBC’S highest-paid woman is Claudia Winkleman, the Strictly presenter.

The Government has forced the BBC to publish the pay of all stars earning more than £150,000 per year.

Damian Collins, the committee chairman, told the Edinburgh International Television Festival: “What would be unacceptable is if next year BBC Studios turned around and said, ‘All these people being paid on Strictly, we are not going to disclose their salaries because we are now an indie and we don’t have to.’

“If they earn over the threshold amount of money… that information should be declared.

“Take someone like David Dimbleby. As far as the licence fee payer is concerned, he is someone who works for the BBC presenting a flagship programme [Question Time], yet what he earns is private because it is made by a production company and not by the BBC directly. I think that is an anomaly that people rightly don’t understand.”

A BBC spokesman said: “BBC Studios is a fully commercial business and not underpinned by public money. Equally, independent production companies are private businesses. We are buying programmes from them, not talent.”