Daily Mail: Huw Edwards racked up six-figure sums from speaking engagements

Story from Daily Mail:

Three BBC news presenters have racked up lucrative six figure incomes from their outside speaking engagements in the past three years, including Huw Edwards and Naga Munchetty.

According to research, BBC Breakfast presenter Munchetty has pocketed in excess of £155,000 from a string of external appearances, on top of her six-figure salary at the corporation.

BBC news presenter Clive Myrie, who has earned more than £130,000 from this external work since the BBC started publishing the payments in 2021.

Huw Edwards, who was suspended last July over claims he paid a young person for sexual images, was also among the top external earners, getting at least £125,000 across this three-year period. He has not had any outside events on the register since he was suspended.

Analysis of the three full years of the BBC's 'external events register' for its news stars, shows how a coterie of big names have been topping up their salaries with lucrative outside work.

This includes working as either hosts, speakers, interviewers, moderators, panellists or event chairmen for external companies and organisations.

Munchetty, 49, who last year was paid about £335,000 by the corporation, carried out four speaking engagements which each earned her more than £10,000. She carried out a further 23 appearances that paid between '£5k-£10k'.

This included work for Microsoft, Cunard, the World Retail Congress as well as Veuve Clicquot and Associated British Foods.

But there has been growing frustration within the BBC that Edwards is likely to be named as the corporation's highest-paid newsreader in this summer's annual report, even though he has not been on air since last July.

Edwards, 62, whose most recently declared pay was about £435,000, has topped up this salary significantly since 2021 with outside work.

The research shows that he carried out seven speaking engagements that paid more than £10,000 each and a further ten in the £5,000 to £10,000 bracket. There was also another payment for 'above £5k'.

These outside earnings included work for the British Insurance Brokers' Association, the Business Champion Awards and the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Mr Myrie, 59, whose last published pay at the BBC was £285,000, was paid 'Over £10k' on five occasions including for Guernsey Alzheimer's Association and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.

He got '£5k-£10k' for 13 appearances, including one for Fujitsu, the company at the centre of the Post Office scandal, along with People's Postcode Lottery and the Royal Academy of Engineering. There were two other payments described as above £5,000 as well as smaller payments for other work.

Today presenter Nick Robinson, 60, who earns about £275,000, was one of the highest earners from outside work, based on the published figures, getting in the region of £90,000 from these speaking engagements. He got at least £30,000 in one month from these external jobs.

His colleague on the Radio 4 show, Justin Webb, who earns about £280,000 at the BBC, had pocketed at least £79,000, from these outside events across the three year period.

One BBC News presenter, Stephen Sackur, was paid £10,000 for work carried out for the Qatar Foundation and then the same amount for the UAE Space Agency.

Others to have been paid high amounts for this type of work are John Simpson, Kirsty Wark, Amol Rajan and Mishal Husain, along with former BBC presenters Emily Maitlis and Dan Walker.

The BBC introduced the external events register in 2021 in a bid to strengthen impartiality at the corporation.