I’ve just had a pay cut, says John Humphrys

JOHN Humphrys admitted yesterday that he had taken a pay cut in the past two weeks – just before the BBC’s ‘rich list’ of top talent was published.

The Today host, pictured left, who was one of the BBC’s biggest-earners on between £600,000 and £650,000 a year, would not say how much of a cut he had taken. He also would not reveal whether the cut was reflected in the salary revealed on Wednesday.

The revelation came as the BBC warned that scores of its highly paid male stars will be forced to take pay cuts as it tried to close the gap with female presenters.

BBC boss James Purnell said on Newsnight that ‘quite a lot of men’ had already done so.

During a testy exchange, host Kirsty Wark asked: ‘Are you going to say to Gary Lineker, “You’re earning, what is it, £2.6million – can you just give £600,000 up so we can bring new female talent on in sport?”’

Mr Purnell said: ‘Quite a lot of men have been taking pay cuts already… that is one of the levers we can pull, definitely, and we have been doing that.’

The Mail revealed before the BBC published its rich list that presenter Andrew Marr had his salary slashed by a quarter in 2015, when he decided to scale back his workload. He is now paid £400,425 a year.

If Mr Humphrys, 73, took a hit at the same rate, he would still command nearly £500,000 a year and remain Today’s biggest earning presenter by some distance.

He said: ‘Yes I have taken a pay cut…[it] was a couple of weeks ago’. Asked whether it would have been reflected in the rich list figure, he added: ‘The answer is I don’t know. I haven’t checked. I haven’t had a pay thingy since then.’

Mr Humphrys admitted that ‘absolutely nothing’ justified the sort of money he was paid, but added: ‘We operate in a market place and I think I provide a fairly useful service. Somebody has to do the job of trying to hold power to account.