Today show’s male stars face pressure to cut pay

JOHN HUMPHRYS and Nick Robinson are under pressure to take pay cuts for their Today programme roles, amid claims that rises for their female colleagues will take money away from investigations and foreign reporting.

Sarah Sands, the editor of BBC Radio 4’s news show, is said to be “too scared” to ask Humphrys and Robinson to sacrifice some of their salary, but worried that the programme’s output will suffer.

Humphrys is paid up to £650,000 a year (including for Mastermind) and Robinson is paid up to £300,000. The long-standing presenter Sarah Montague did not appear on the list of those who earn £150,000 or more. Her colleague, Mishal Husain, gets up to £250,000 for Today and other BBC work.

A source close to Ms Sands told the Daily Mail she was “upset” that growth in presenter pay meant she has “nothing to spend” on reporters and producers. A BBC spokesman dismissed the claims as “gossip”.