BBC response to The Sun, 11 February 2015
Today the Sun attacked the 'scandal' of the BBC paying 'greedy' MPs to appear on some of our shows (when they’re not appearing just in their party political capacity). It described these payments as a splurge of public money and 'Beeb’s bungs'.
Published: 11 February 2015
It makes a neat headline (it’s a story run by papers on a regular cycle) but there’s a few quick things we wanted to point out.
- MPs are only paid for certain programmes – we don’t pay for them to appear on programmes like The Andrew Marr Show, Today or Daily Politics, when they’re generally representing their party and explaining or promoting policies. But we may pay if they’re presenting a documentary, or appearing on shows like Have I Got News For You or This Week where they’re going beyond their usual role as an MP. We could always have an empty seat though.
- We’re sure Sun readers love hearing from MPs – and quite right too – given it too pays MPs to write for it.
- We’re glad the Sun enjoys holding the BBC to account and challenging us – it keeps us on our toes and makes sure the licence fee is well spent. We know that deep down Sun journalists like the BBC as well – that’s why they’re happy to be paid to contribute to some of our programmes as well.
Oh, and given the paper also says we’ve “splashed out” on a new senior job, it’s worth saying we’ve cut the number of senior managers and their paybill by a third since 2009. But when we’re looking at making a major change, like transforming our in-house production, it does need someone with the right skills and experience in charge.
BBC Press Office