Up to £25k for a day’s work (on top of cash we pay them)
FOR years, BBC stars have had a lucrative little sideline. When they are not on air, they routinely top up their salaries with well- paid speaking engagements.
The highly paid gigs help make life a little smoother by paying for exotic holidays, school fees and kitchen extensions.
And the sums on offer are often huge. Mid-ranking presenters can easily earn a fivefigure sum for an evening’s work. The BBC’s best-known names can comfortably command in excess of £25,000 for a full day. A regular roster of speaking events might be enough to double their salary.
The BBC does little to stop the practice, allowing stars to be seduced by events that range from controversial to the outright embarrassing.
Incredibly, stars believe they are not even required to declare any outside engagements unless they think there may be a problem.
News at Ten presenter Huw Edwards is a regular host of the Concrete Society Awards, the annual recognition of ‘excellence in concrete’ held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. In 2015, he was ridiculed for lavishing praise on the sea wall at Lyme Regis, which impressed judges with its ‘ exposed aggregate finish’ and the way it followed the contours of the coastline.
The presenter, who earns up to £495,000 from the BBC, also praised Glasgow’s Anderston footbridge, which used an ‘ enclosed gantry system’ to extend an existing ‘partially completed concrete box girder’.
Licence fee payers may have raised their eyebrows but Mr Edwards was not put off by the public embarrassment. In 2017, he went on to host the Fleet News Awards that ‘ recognise the best of the fleet industry’.
Newsnight anchor Emily Maitlis is another regular conference speaker, boosting her £260,000 salary by charging between £10,000 and £25,000 a time.
According to JLA – an agency which has many of these stars on its books – her clients found her ‘surefooted and elegant, with terrific stage presence’ when she fronted the Printing World Excellence Awards.
She also impressed at an event hosted by the risk management firm Scor, and an annual dinner for World Jewish Relief. Another serial speaker is Steph McGovern, the BBC Breakfast star who earlier this month announced she was pregnant. Last year, The Sun reported that Miss McGovern had at least doubled her six-figure salary in 2017 by hosting 17 after-dinner engagements, including the Building Control Industry Awards, and the Catering Equipment Suppliers’ Association conference. She charges between £10,000
and
£25,000, according to JLA’s website. In February, she was named as one of the agency’s top five after- dinner speakers – loved as ‘one of the most sociable and down-to-earth hosts, often joining for dinner and chatting to as many people as she can on the night’. Miss McGovern is not the only BBC Breakfast host to boost her salary.
Louise Minchin and Dan Walker are also regulars on the speaking circuit despite earning up to £210,000 and £285,000 from the BBC respectively.
Walker charges up to £10,000 hosting events by the likes of Journey 9, a Manchester-based marketing services company. Miss Minchin managed to eclipse him in the glamour stakes, charging up to £10,000 to speak at an event hosted by Point of Purchase Advertising International.
Radio 5 Live host Jeremy Vine commands between £5,000 and £10,000 to present awards. The star, who is paid up to £295,000 a year by the BBC, also spoke at an event hosted by the Institute for Turnaround, which specialises in helping underperforming businesses. He appears to work harder for his money than some stars, and is often praised by clients for doing thorough research rather than recycling wellworn speeches.
Strictly Come Dancing presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly also use speaking events to give their pay packets an extra boost.
Miss Winkleman is thought to earn nearly £800,000 a year from the BBC, although only £375,000 of this appears on the rich list.
She charges up to £25,000 for hosting awards events. She tends to go for more glamourous occasions, including the UK Jewellery Awards, the Annual Vue Awards, the 2016 GQ Food and Drink Awards and the 2016 British Association for Screen Entertainment awards, according to the Great British Speakers Agency. Miss Daly is willing to front ceremonies that are a little more down-to- earth given the right price tag. In 2015, she and her husband Vernon Kay collected an estimated £37,000 to host the inaugural British Takeaway Awards.
Lauren Laverne, the Radio 6 Music host and Desert Island Discs presenter, is another speaking circuit regular – collecting up to £25,000 for glamourous gigs such as the 2017 Design Week Awards bash and the magazine publishers, Mondiale Publishing.
A gushing review on the JLA website says that she is so reliable, ‘production teams seem to breathe a sigh of relief when they find out the “lovely Lauren Laverne” is in charge.’
The review added: She’s a speaker bureau’s dream.’