BBC Salaries Sun Front Page Prompts Dan Walker To Explain What He Is Paid For

'Stop lying.'
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BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker has taken aim at the Sun’s front page by explaining why his salary is so much higher than his female co-host Louise Minchin.

The tabloid’s front page featured a picture of Walker sitting next to an unimpressed-looking Minchin, along with the headline “awkward!”.

It noted that while Walker appeared on the list of the BBC’s top earners in the £200,000 - £249,999 bracket, Minchin - who has hosted programme far longer than him - did not.

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The Sun's front page on Thursday focused on the BBC Breakfast team's pay
The Sun

But Walker was having none of it.

He tweeted that he and Minchin were actually paid the same for their roles on BBC Breakfast but it was his additional work that bumped up his salary so he appeared on the top earners list.

Minchin has not tweeted on the issue.

On Wednesday, Walker also shot back at Piers Morgan after the broadcaster tweeted asking if he would appear on his show to discuss his pay...

The corporation was on Wednesday forced to reveal a huge gender pay gap exists among the best known and highest paid presenters after publishing for the first time a list of on-air talent earning above £150,000 a year.

The figures show the top four male presenters across the BBC were collectively paid almost four times the total amount of the top four female presenters, with Chris Evans taking home £2.24 million last year.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme on Friday, Anne Mcelvoy, senior editor at the Economist, said that there were “wider implications” to the figures.

She said the list was interesting for “what it says about the culture of the organisation and other organisations...about what they think that women are suited to”.