The veteran broadcaster Libby Purves has accused male BBC presenters of being “vain and greedy” and called on Tony Hall, the director general, to better address the issue of equal pay at the corporation.
Purves, who presented Radio 4’s Midweek from 1983 until it was dropped last year, said there was no excuse for a lack of equality in newsroom pay – an issue that made headlines last week after Carrie Gracie’s resignation as the BBC’s China editor.
The dispute has been simmering since last summer since the BBC published its pay scales, but Gracie’s resignation further exposed deep divisions at the publicly funded corporation, where few of the best-paid stars are women.
“Some complain that the pay gap exists because women don’t negotiate,” Purves writes in the latest issue of Radio Times. “I would say that it’s more about men being vain and greedy.
“With few exceptions (mainly in the shiny-floor-and-spangles world inhabited by, for example, Claudia Winkleman), it’s men who drive pay to insane levels. It’s men, not women, who flick their carefully tended hair and purr, like a L’Oréal ad: ‘Because I’m worth it!’.”
Purves said she accepted the BBC had “a problem with inherited contracts”. “One would like the director-general (DG) of the BBC to spend a week reading the BBC’s payroll and noting the gender inequality,” she said.
“The DG could then weigh the importance of top earners and tell their agents that their next contract will shrink, because the BBC must budget carefully and equably. If they threatened to go, the DG could gently say: ‘If you must. But remember how much of your ratings depends on our Rolls-Royce production values and international reach. We’ll build another you.’”
Purves added: “To news stars the DG could add that BBC News itself is the real star, respected for the rigorous work of hundreds of others who are less well paid.”
The former Today presenter made reference to a tweet by the Newsnight presenter Evan Davis, who wrote:
I don't think the idea that there should be equal pay for the same work makes sense in showbiz. No junior actor working alongside Tom Cruise should expect to get the same pay as him. I would not have expected to get the same as John Humphrys when I joined the Today programme. 5/9
— Evan Davis (@EvanHD) January 8, 2018
“Mate, you’re not in showbiz!” Purves countered. “It may be harsh to say, but nobody wants you on a red carpet! You’re an economist who did a bit of Today!”
In an interview for Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour last week, Gracie explained she had turned down a £45,000 pay increase that would have taken her overall pay to £180,000 because it would still have remained below that of two male international editors – the US editor, Jon Sopel, and the Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen.
“I didn’t want more money, do you understand, I wanted equality,” she said. BBC colleagues quickly came to her support and within hours the hashtag #istandwithcarrie was trending on Twitter.
Gracie and Hall have since agreed to give evidence to MPs after the culture secretary, Matt Hancock, said there was a need for “much more action” on the issue.
In response to an urgent question in the House of Commons, Hancock said: “As a treasured national institution, the BBC must not only uphold but be a beacon for the British values of fairness that this nation holds dear. That includes fair pay and equal pay for equal jobs.”
In the same issue of Radio Times, Susanna Reid, co-host of ITV’s Good Morning Britain with Piers Morgan, added her voice to the debate, stating that as a publicly funded organisation the BBC had a responsibility to ensure equal pay.
“It’s vital that feminist voices are heard, and I call myself a feminist,” Reid said. “Piers also calls himself a feminist, which is interesting.”
