BBC women 'let pay gap happen', claims equality tsar

Female BBC stars complaining that they are paid less than their male colleagues "let it happen" by failing to ask for a pay rise, the Government's equality tsar has suggested.

Sir Philip Hampton, who co-chairs a Government-commissioned review into the treatment of women in the UK’s biggest companies, said he had “never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise”.

It comes after the most famous female BBC stars launched an open revolt against their bosses and issuing a public challenge to the corporation to “act now” to close the gender pay gap.

Figures published by the public broadcaster revealed that women account for just a third of the BBC’s biggest earners, with only one woman in the top nine.

MPs said the comments by Sir Philip, chairman of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline,  were “astonishingly ill-judged” and “heap insult on injustice”.

In an interview with the London Evening Standard, Sir Philip said: “How has this situation arisen at the BBC that these intelligent, high-powered, sometimes formidable women have sat in this situation?

“They [the female broadcasters] are all looking at each other now saying: ‘how did we let this happen?’ I suspect they let it happen because they weren’t doing much about it."

He added: “I’ve had lots of women reporting to me or coming in to talk to me about their careers - either for general guidance or employees of companies where I’ve been working. I have never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise.

“There isn’t a list long enough for all the men who’ve asked. Lots of men have trooped into my office saying they are under-paid but no woman has ever done that.”

He said that he believes that many chief executives would tell the same story: “It is far more common for men to ask for more money than it is for women.”

Sir Philip is leading a campaign to get more female executives into top business jobs. He is the non-executive chairman of GlaxoSmithKline where he earns £700,000-a-year, a quarter of which he receives in shares, and was previously chairman of Sainsburys and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Nicky Morgan, a Tory MP and former Education Secretary who appointed Sir Philip to conduct the review, said: “Surely we have moved beyond it being about who marches into the boss’s office asking for a pay rise.

“That’s why the the gender pay gap disclosures put the burden on senior management to think about pay differentials in their organisation.”

On BBC pay, she added: “Presumably the presenters relied on the fact that the BBC was a world-renowned organisation and would treat people equally. Clearly that has proven to be a mistake.”

Jane Garvey, the BBC Woman’s Hour presenter who is calling for pay equality, said Sir Philip appeared “peculiarly out of touch” given his role.

She added: “The likes of Sir Philip Hampton can never begin to understand. He seems peculiarly out of touch given the task he has. Many women have learnt to question their position in the workplace, partly because of the dominance and success of people like him.”

A Government spokesman said: "There are many factors that contribute to the gender pay gap but we know transparency is important in tackling it.

"This is why we’ve changed the law to require all large employers to publish their gender pay gap figures."