Former BBC deputy director-general Mark Byford today defended his pay-off of almost £1 million, denying that he had been greedy.
Mr Byford, whose salary was £475,000, received a total of £949,000 when he was made redundant by the corporation.
His payment is one of several which have drawn widespread criticism of the BBC. But when asked on BBC Radio 5 Live whether he would pay back some of the sum, Mr Byford responded: “I have done nothing wrong.” He told Victoria Derbyshire’s show: “I absolutely don’t think it was greed on my part at all. I lost my job. I was made redundant. I was given the terms I was given by the BBC. I left when I was told to leave by the BBC.
“After 32 years of working there, where I was devoted to the corporation, the last thing that I would ever think or feel was that I would want to have greed.”
A report by the National Audit Office, released in July this year, criticised the BBC for paying out £25 million in severance to 150 outgoing senior BBC managers.
The BBC’s director-general, Lord Hall, addressing the CBI conference in London, urged the broadcaster to return to its values of the Seventies and start treating “licence-fee payers’ cash as if it were our own”.
