Peer tricks BBC presenter into £92,000 confession

BBC salaries were drawn into the MPs expenses row today after a peer turned the tables on a presenter in an on-screen bust-up.

Carrie Gracie, a presenter on the BBC News Channel, was left defending her £92,000-a-year salary while interviewing Labour peer Lord Foulkes. He was touring the TV stations to defend Commons Speaker Michael Martin over his handling of the allowances scandal.

After Gracie had attacked MPs' claims, Lord Foulkes challenged her to say how much she was paid by the licence fee payer. "My salary is £92,000," she replied, before he seized on this to say: "£92,000, so you are paid nearly twice as much as a Member of Parliament to come on and talk nonsense."

The presenter hit back, saying: "Every single call I make, I make from my own phone. I don't even make a personal call from the BBC because I understand what public sector money is about." When she tried to ask another question and apologised for interrupting, Lord Foulkes said: "You're not at all sorry to interrupt me — every time an MP comes on you constantly harass them."

The peer appears to have got his sums wrong as MPs are paid £64,700 and can claim a second home allowance of just over £24,000 a year.

Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell was today seeking six other MPs to join him in tabling a motion of no confidence in Mr Martin but by lunchtime had not named anyone willing to support his move.