BBC told: Give names and salaries of stars earning more than PM
EVERY BBC star who earns more than the Prime Minister should have their pay made public, MPs are demanding.
A damning report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee found ‘no good reason’ for details of presenters and executives who receive more than £143,000 a year to be hidden.
Publishing names and salaries would reduce suspicion the Corporation overpays staff, it said.
The BBC argues that disclosure could lead to a ‘poacher’s charter’ that would help its commercial rivals lure talent away. But the MPs said this was disingenuous, adding that the salary levels are common knowledge in the industry.
At present, the BBC must reveal the salaries of its top executives but only releases what it pays its top talent in pay brackets with no names. Earlier this year the Government White Paper on the future of the BBC proposed that the broadcaster should identify which stars earn more than the directorgeneral’s salary of £450,000.
That would mean some nine stars – including Eurovision host Graham Norton, Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker and Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans – would have had their pay revealed.
However, the committee has gone further by recommending that the threshold be brought down to the same salary as the Prime Minister.
A list of 43 BBC celebrities reportedly being paid more than £143,000 was heavily denied by the BBC after it was published by a news website in May.
Lineker is said to earn £1.8million, while Evans is reportedly on £600,000 and was getting an extra £125,000 an episode for Top Gear.
Jeremy Vine, the Radio 2 DJ and Eggheads host, is understood to be on £800,000 and Strictly Come Dancing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on over £500,000.
Fiona Bruce, the newsreader and presenter of Antiques Roadshow and Fake Or Fortune, is thought to earn £500,000. Former Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman is understood still to earn more than £450,000.
MP Damian Collins, acting chairman of the committee, said: ‘All these salaries are paid by the licence fee-payer, whether they are for broadcasters or BBC executives.
‘Why should there be different rules for each? It’s disingenuous to say confidentiality is needed to prevent poaching when in general everyone in the industry knows what everyone else is getting paid.’
Committee member Nigel Huddleston, Tory MP for Mid Worcestershire, said: ‘The fact that it has been difficult to find out what talent is paid raises suspicion.
‘This would reduce that, and the chance of there being unfair or inappropriate compensation to BBC talent.’
Fellow Tory MP Andrew Bridgen added: ‘The BBC wants every advantage of being funded by the taxpayer but all the confidentiality of a private company.’
The committee also raised ‘serious concerns’ about the appointment of Rona Fairhead as chairman of the BBC’s new Unitary Board, which will replace the BBC Trust. Miss Fairhead, who has chaired the Trust since August 2014, was asked by Downing Street to stay on and run the new board until 2018.
The lack of recruitment process was criticised by SNP MP John Nicholson, who said last month the appointment had ‘broken rules’.
The committee highlighted the ‘very different responsibilities’ of being head of the BBC Trust and what Miss Fairhead will now be expected to do.
A BBC Trust spokesman said: ‘The Trust has always accepted that the appointment of the BBC Board Chairman, and the process by which this is done, is a matter for the Government. The chairman underwent a rigorous and open appointment process.’
A spokesman for the BBC said: ‘The BBC already publishes more information about talent pay than other broadcasters. We cut our bill for talent pay by £8million last year, but creating a poacher’s charter by publishing the salaries of individual presenters and actors wouldn’t be in the interests of licence fee-payers who say they want the best talent on the BBC.’
‘They are funded by licence fee-payers’