EVESHAM’S MP Nigel Huddleston said the gender pay gap row at the BBC only highlights the ‘severity’ of the wider problem in the UK.
Last week the BBC published its annual report which for the first time included the salaries of all its ‘top talent’ earning more than £150,000 a year.
It revealed the gulf in pay between women and men at the corporation and has lead to calls from the BBC’s most recognisable female stars for the gender pay cap to end now, and not by 2020 as Director General Tony Hall had previously promised.
Mr Huddleston sits on the influential Culture, Media and Sport Committee which first recommended to the Government that the BBC should publish the salaries of its top stars.
Speaking following the announcement, the Mid Worcestershire MP said it was ‘immensely disappointing’ a gender pay gap still exists in one of the country’s ‘most admired’ public institutions.
“Both the total salaries and the gender differentials have shocked many of my constituents,” he said.
“But we still don’t have the full picture. Some famous TV stars are paid via independent production companies rather than directly by the BBC, so not all salaries are revealed.
“I have raised the issue of the gender pay gap at the BBC in the House of Commons previously and I had hoped the BBC would have closed the gap in advance of publication of salaries.
“Some progress has been made, but it is immensely disappointing, that in a country that prides itself on equality, there is still a 10 per cent gender pay gap in one of our biggest and most admired public institutions.
“It is only fair that the salaries of women should reflect the salaries of men doing the same job.
“The fact that the pay gap at the BBC is smaller than many other bodies and the private sector in general only highlights the severity of the wider problem.”
