Stars defend BBC salaries as Theresa May criticises gender pay gap

The Prime Minister has criticised the BBC for "paying women less for doing the same job as men" after the salaries of the broadcaster's biggest stars were publicly released.

Speaking to LBC, Theresa May said the gender pay gap would have remained secret if the Government had not forced the BBC to reveal the earnings of top actors and presenters.

Examples of disparities between stars include the £200,000 gap between Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce, who both present evening news programmes.

BBC Breakfast's Dan Walker is included on the list of high earners, while his co-presenter Louise Minchin is absent.

On Twitter, Walker explained that he and Minchin earn "exactly the same" for presenting the morning news show - but he is paid extra for working on Football Focus.

Kirsty Wark, Sophie Raworth, Victoria Derbyshire, Mishal Husain and Martha Kearney all appear to earn less than male presenters doing similar jobs with similar experience.

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Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson, a former equalities minister, has said the figures should act as a "really strong wake-up call" to ensure the gender pay gap is eliminated "as quickly as possible".

A Labour source described the pay gap as "obviously wrong", with Jeremy Corbyn suggesting BBC stars could expect dramatic pay drops if he enters government.

His party has proposed a maximum twenty-to-one ratio between the highest and lowest paid staff in public sector organisations, which would cap pay at £320,000.

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BBC director-general Tony Hall has admitted that the list shows "the need to go further and faster on issues of gender and diversity" - however, he defended the six and seven-figure salaries being funded by licence fee payers.

Many presenters continued to front their shows as normal today, with one listener confronting Radio 2 host Jeremy Vine and asking whether he was "embarrassed" to accept his pay cheque of between £700,000 and £750,000 a year.

In another bizarre exchange, BBC head of radio James Purnell was asked how he could justify Vine's salary - by Vine himself.

Andrew Marr was one of the first stars to defend their pay packet, with the £400,000-a-year politics presenter claiming his salary had fallen by £139,000 over the past two years.

Radio 2 DJ and former Top Gear presenter Chris Evans was revealed as the highest earner, with £2.2m last year, while Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker was the second-highest at more than £1.75m.