Maajid: The One Thing You May Have Missed With The BBC Gender Pay Gap Row

22 July 2017, 13:57 | Updated: 22 July 2017, 15:50

Maajid Nawaz highlighted one thing which shows the BBC is not the only one to blame for the gap in pay between men and women.

The BBC has faced backlash after a list outlining their top earners showed a stark difference in pay between men and women.

One case in particular has proved particularly controversial: Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis earning more than 50 per cent less than her fellow presenter Evan Davis.

Following the revelation, her agent, Alex Armitage tweeted that her absence from the pay list was “beyond madness and being dealt with”.

But Maajid Nawaz pointed out something critics of the BBC may have missed.

He said: "I think it's sightly cheeky of Alex Armitage...to be complaining about the BBC. Though indeed the essence of his complaint is correct, why is it slightly cheeky?

"Because he's claiming that the BBC were being untruthful, leading him to believe for years that Emily Maitlis was [not] underpaid.

"Well this man, and it is in this context relevant that he is a man, who is claiming that the men at the BBC, because all the chief executives at the BBC doing those negotiations are men, that this man when negotiating with the men in the BBC were misleading him about his female stars' salary, when this is the same agent, by the way, who negotiated the salary for the fourth highest paid man on television - Jeremy Vine.

"So while Emily Maitlis was earning under £150,000, Jeremy Vine, the fourth highest paid, above £700,000."

He added: "He must have known how much he negotiated for Jeremy Vine's pay. How on earth did he not know? How can he be complaining about the BBC, saying they misled me about the pay discrepancy between the male and female presenters, when he represents the two that most starkingly [sic] demonstrate that discrepancy?

"I find this really, really strange."