‘Angry’ Eddie Mair bows out of BBC radio amid spat over salary
EDDIE MAIR, the host of Radio 4’s PM programme for two decades, has resigned from the BBC after resisting pressure to accept a drastic salary cut.
Mair was recently described as “the last man standing” in the corporation’s attempt to bring down the pay of its high-profile male news stars. His salary of £300,000-£350,000 had drawn the ire of women at the BBC.
In a statement yesterday, written in typically irreverent style, Mair said it was the “appropriate moment to step out” and he would miss “Tony Hall’s aftershave”, a joke at the expense of the corporation’s director-general. But behind the scenes he was said to be furious at becoming a victim of the BBC’S gender pay row. Mair was forced to take a salary cut several years ago when the corporation put him on staff after years as a freelance. He then fought a long battle for a pay rise.
“He has been angry for years,” one colleague said. “He fought for a pay rise, then as soon as he got it there were calls for it to be cut. It was the final straw. Eddie is a sensitive, talented, private person and when those types lose it, they go up like Vesuvius.”
In January, it was announced that Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Jeremy Vine and Nick Robinson had all taken reductions.
But it was reported last month that Mair was resistant to the idea. At the time, the BBC said Mair had “expressed his willingness to have a pay reduction”, but negotiations broke down. In May, The Telegraph revealed that ministers and MPS had raised concerns over the levels of pay of BBC stars, including Mr Mair. One ministerial source said: “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?”
Mair was once mooted as a replacement for David Dimbleby as host of Question Time. But the BBC is under pressure to give the job to a woman. He will step down in August.
In his statement, he said: “It’s 31 years since I joined the BBC, 25 years since I first presented PM, and 20 since it became my main gig. I thought this was the appropriate moment to step out and give someone else a chance, before I’m so old my sentences make no lasagne.”
He added: “I realise the BBC will close down without me and there will be a run on the pound, but I can’t stay in an organisation that refused to let me host Songs of Praise. I bought a jacket and everything.
“I’m truly grateful to the BBC, however, for being given more opportunities over the years than I deserved. My apologies to PM listeners for all the things I’ve said that I shouldn’t have, and all the things I should have said that I didn’t. Whoever comes next will be getting the best job in the BBC, and I honestly wish them the very best.”
Mair, 52, built a loyal audience since he took over as the sole presenter of PM in 2003, and in 2012 he won a Sony Radio Academy Award for his interview with Julie Nicholson, who lost her daughter Jenny in the London bombing of July 7 2005.
Mair is expected to confirm a move to LBC this week, in what would be a major coup for the BBC’S commercial rival.
Fran Unsworth, director of BBC news, said: “Eddie has delivered outstanding journalism and created a real bond with the audience through his mixture of warmth, incisive questioning and knowing when to listen in order to get the very best out of his guests.”
♦ Jeremy Vine is to leave Points of View after 10 years. The presenter recently announced he was taking on a new role as host of a daily Channel 5 current affairs show.