Figures published today have shown that of the 108 people at the BBC who earn more than £150,000, just 34 are women.

Only five women are in the top 20 and one in the top 10. Claudia Winkleman, the top earning female. earns a quarter (£400,000 – £449,000) of the salary of the highest earning male, Chris Evans (£2.2m – 2.249m).

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Former Equalities Minister Jo Swinson commented:

“I hope these figures will act as a really strong wake-up call.

“We need to eliminate the gender pay gap as quickly possible.

“Making gender pay gap data transparent is vital to pierce the bubble of complacency in organisations. That is why I was so determined in 2015 to win the fight in government to introduce mandatory gender pay gap reporting.

“That means that not only do we know the picture in the BBC, soon we will be able to see how other media organisations compare.”