BBC presenters bolster their six figure salaries through moonlighting

​The Director General of the BBC Tim Davie has said the rules for external interests should be clearer. There are many BBC presenters moonlighting and making thousands of pounds on top of their hefty BBC salaries. The BBC has published its first moonlight register from January to March and shows presenters that have earned £5,000 or more per engagement. These include Dan Walker, Emily Maitlis, Justin Webb and Louise Minchin among others.

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​These presenters are only in demand from external companies due to their BBC jobs. They are using their position working for the public broadcaster for financial gain. A BBC spokesperson said “The BBC’s robust and longstanding Editorial Guidelines permit staff to carry out additional engagements as long as they do not compromise the integrity or impartiality of the BBC.” I would argue that some of these jobs are breaking the integrity and impartiality of the BBC. For example Jon Sopel the North America editor spoke for both tobacco company Phillip Morris International and JP Morgan, clearly speaking for companies with agendas such as these it brings the impartiality of the BBC into question.

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We the license fee payers are giving these presenters their salaries. We are paying a presenter such as Justin Webb £250,000 a year for a 4 day week on Radio 4 which he then topped up with £20,000 from outside engagements. I would suggest he gives this money back to subsidise his wage that we pay for. People should be looking to cancel their license fee and not give money to the overpaid on screen talent at the BBC, talent which is not satisfied by the enormous salaries they already receive but seek to supplement wages speaking for companies which break impartiality and integrity rules.