Humphrys should take 50% pay cut, suggests MP
BROADCASTER John Humphrys should suggest taking a 50% pay cut as part of efforts to equalise salaries for men and women at the BBC, the House of Commons has heard.
Rhondda MP and Labour former minister Chris Bryant said the BBC’s highestpaid news presenter, and other highly paid presenters, such as fellow Welshman Huw Edwards, should consider such action in response to the latest concerns over gender pay inequality at the corporation.
Mr Humphrys, pictured, who was raised in Splott, Cardiff, has an annual salary of between £600,000 and £649,999. Mr Edwards, from Bridgend, reportedly earns between £550,000 and £599,999.
Mr Bryant’s remarks came after Conservative MP Philip Davies said the BBC has been run “like an old boys’ club for far too long”, adding many men are “paid too much” and should have their salaries “levelled down”.
Anne Main, Tory MP for St Albans, also said “some of the men are overpaid” and suggested a “root-and-branch analysis of what’s going wrong in the BBC” is needed.
New Culture Secretary Matt Hancock agreed such an analysis “must happen”.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Bryant said change is needed at the BBC and suggested Carrie Gracie – who raised the latest concerns – could chair the corporation and ensure this happens.
He added: “But in the end aren’t some of the men, like John Humphrys, actually going to have to say, ‘You know what? I am paid too much, I should take a 50% cut’.”
Mr Hancock, in his reply, said: “He makes a very interesting suggestion.”
Shipley MP Mr Davies earlier told the Commons: “It isn’t the fact that women at the BBC are paid too little, it’s clearly the fact that many men at the BBC are paid too much and that those salaries should be levelled down.”
Mrs Main also said: “The fact they tried to solve the problem with Carrie Gracie with a bung of £45,000 says to me that there’s an endemic problem in the BBC that they do not understand, they do not get it.”
Conservative former minister Sir Mike Penning added MPs could change the BBC’s charter “at any time we wish” to ensure it publishes everything so there is “equality across the pay bands for contractors as well as those at the top end”.
Meanwhile, the director-general of the BBC has been asked to appear before MPs for a grilling about the gender pay gap row engulfing the corporation.
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee extended the invitation to Tony Hall so it can question him over the broadcaster’s progress in narrowing pay disparities since last year.
It comes after the BBC’s former China editor took a dramatic stand on the issue – accusing her employer of unlawful salary discrimination.