BBC’s Huw Edwards paid £25k a month for second jobs
One of the Beeb’s most famous faces well and truly cashes in on moonlighting, with BBC News presenter Huw Edwards earning at least £25,000 from second jobs in just one month.
Edwards is paid around £430,000 for his main BBC gig, and took on four external speaking engagements in March alone, including the Business Matters event, and a gig with Bauer Media.
The price for these extra jobs varied from around £5,000 to £10,000 for Edwards, according to the BBC’s external events register.
Not only did Edwards rank as the top moonlighter in the first three months of this year, but his salary top-up in March was also higher than his entire outside earnings in 2021, according to calculations by The Times.
BBC’s Today programme presenter Nick Robinson followed close behind, speaking at two events for the Association of Investment Companies in March, taking home anywhere between £5,000 to £10,000 for each day.
The register published by the BBC was introduced as part of a package of impartiality measures and details paid-for external work by staff in on-air journalism roles and senior leaders.
Data from this quarter showed that over 50 per cent of external events undertaken by staff involved payments of under £1,000 and the overwhelming majority – 79 per cent- were below £5,000.