Back to the BBC, which these days is better at being in the news than making it. The six-figure salary list for 2023-24 has been published and with it come some quite interesting revelations. Top earner Gary Lineker received £1.35 million, while Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball isn’t too far behind on £950,000. Big names including Greg James, Stephen Nolan and Fiona Bruce saw their salaries increase while politicos Laura Kuenssberg and Nick Robinson also made the list.
But, most interestingly, Mr S notices that Huw Edwards saw his salary rise by a colossal £40,000 last year – despite not having worked for most of the last 12 months. Edwards was suspended by the BBC in July 2023 after the presenter was found to be at the centre of a sex scandal, facing allegations that he had solicited explicit images from a young man. He resigned from the Beeb in April this year, citing medical reasons. However today’s figures show that the newsreader earned a whopping £480,000 between March 2023 and April 2024 – earning him the accolade of the BBC’s third highest-earning presenter.
The Beeb has defended Edwards’s salary rise, stating that it is ‘normal BBC policy’ to remain on the payroll while suspended. When quizzed on whether the ex-newsreader had been paid off, the BBC’s director general Tim Davie denied there was any settlement payment. He continued:
No-one wants to waste a pound but we need to act proportionately and fairly and I think that’s what we did. Prior to any breaking of the (Edwards) story, people do get pay rises for extended responsibility and more hours’ work. So that’s fairly normal, and that’s what resulted in the change.
Alright for some…
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