A GOVERNMENT adviser on equal pay has been severely criticised by the Scots deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats for saying that female staff at the BBC let the gender pay gap happen "because they weren't doing much about it".

Jo Swinson, the MP for East Dunbartonshire and former Minister for Women and Equalities said Sir Philip Hampton's comments "heap insult on injustice" adding that his comments were "at best, astonishingly ill-judged".

The corporation has faced criticism since it revealed last week that its top earners were largely men.

The Herald: Chris Evans

The list showed that Chris Evans is the BBC’s best-paid star, collecting at least £2.2m in the last financial year, while Claudia Winkleman was the highest-paid female celebrity, was paid just a fifth of what Evans collected, between £450,000 and £500,000.

It also revealed that two-thirds of the 96 presenters and celebrities paid more than £150,000 were men, and director general Tony Hall admitted there was "more to do" on the gender pay gap.

Sir Philip, the co-author of the government's Hampton-Alexander review looking at ways of increasing the number of women in top paid jobs said: "How has this situation arisen at the BBC that these intelligent, high-powered, sometimes formidable women have sat in this situation?

"They [the female broadcasters] are all looking at each other now saying: 'How did we let this happen?' I suspect they let it happen because they weren't doing much about it."

Ms Swinson, who founded Equal Power Consulting, a firm which fights for the recognition of talented women added: "His remarks that the BBC women 'let this happen' display a worrying lack of understanding of the structural gender, race and class bias across all of society at all levels, including the BBC.

The Herald:

"Blaming women for the gender gap in organisations gets us nowhere. We need to recognise the endemic problem of sexism and all take proactive steps to solve it."

Sir Philip, who is chairman of global drugs company GSK, where he earns £700,000 a year, added: "It's just a difference between men and women: men go for promotions and leadership roles, women are less proactive in asking for more money.

"I've had lots of women reporting to me or coming in to talk to me about their careers - either for general guidance or employees of companies where I've been working. I have never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise.

"There isn't a list long enough for all the men who've asked. Lots of men have trooped into my office saying they are under-paid but no woman has ever done that."