BBC presenter John Humphrys says off-air comments about equal pay were "nothing to do" with Carrie Gracie's campaign

The BBC’s John Humphrys has said comments about equal pay made in an off-air chat were “nothing to do” with the campaign by the organisation’s former China editor Carrie Gracie after he came under fire for making light of the situation.

Radio broadcaster Mr Humphrys was criticised after a leaked tape recording of a conversation between with North America editor Jon Sopel, before Monday’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme, reportedly heard them discussing Ms Gracie, who had quit just hours earlier in protest at unequal pay.

According to the Sun and the Times, Mr Humphrys asked his colleague how much of his salary he would be prepared to “hand over” to keep Ms Gracie as China editor, before adding: “Oh dear God, she’s actually suggested you should lose money.”

But the presenter told the Times the conversation had not been intended as a criticism of Ms Gracie.

He said: “This was what I thought was an exchange between two old friends who have known each other for 30 years and were taking the mickey out of each other. It was nothing to do with Carrie’s campaign.”

Ms Gracie has been praised for taking a stand over equal pay, accusing the BBC of a “secretive and illegal pay culture”.

In an open letter, she said she had left her post to “speak out publicly on a crisis of trust at the BBC”, adding that she simply wanted the corporation to “abide by the law and value men and women equally”.

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Former BBC journalist Miriam O’Reilly, who won a tribunal against the corporation in 2011, claimed to have heard the recording of the conversation between Mr Humphrys and Mr Sopel, describing it as “base – and beneath what the public would expect to hear from John Humphrys.”

She also described the exchange as “smug and condescending”.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “This was an ill-advised off-air conversation which the presenter regrets.

“The BBC is committed to getting its pay structures right and, as we have said, we are conducting a comprehensive analysis of presenter pay.”