Six of the BBC’s leading male presenters have agreed to take pay cuts after revelations over equal salaries.
The BBC said Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine had all accepted reduced wages.
The move follows Carrie Gracie’s resignation as BBC China editor in protest at unequal pay between male and female international editors.
Humphrys said he would be earning “hugely less” than the £600,000 he was.
The move comes after the BBC revealed the pay of on-air talent earning over £150,000 in July. Two-thirds of stars on the list, including the top seven earners, were men.
Humphrys, the presenter on Radio 4’s flagship Today programme and Mastermind, was revealed to have earned between £600,000 and £649,999 in 2016/17.
He refused to confirm or deny reports that his pay packet had been halved, to £250,000-£300,000, but did say his new salary would be “a lot less than £600,000”.
He said he had, in fact, taken a total of three pay cuts. “It seemed fair,” he told BBC News. “The BBC used to have, in the good old days, an awful lot of money.
“It no longer has an awful lot of money. I was earning a lot of money and it seemed entirely proper to me that I should take a few pay cuts.”
Of the six men, Radio 2 and Eggheads presenter Jeremy Vine was the best-paid of the group, earning between £700,000-£749,999 in 2016/17.
Jon Sopel, the BBC’s North America editor, earned the least, in the £200,000-£249,999 bracket – compared to Carrie Gracie’s £135,000-a-year salary.