BBC releases angry pay negotiation emails from Jeremy Vine’s agent: ‘Stop treating him like a child as he is sick of it now’

Corporation used ‘torturous’ discussions as supporting evidence in Samira Ahmed employment tribunal

The BBC has released “torturous” pay negotiation emails from Jeremy Vine’s agent as part of the corporation’s legal battle with presenter Samira Ahmed.

Newswatch presenter Ahmed has taken the BBC to an employment tribunal seeking £693,245 in lost earnings as part of an equal pay dispute, arguing “it just does not seem fair” that she was paid £440 per episode of her programme while Vine received £3,000 for each instalment of similar show Points of View.

The BBC’s supporting evidence, according to Deadline, includes emails from Vine’s agent Alex Armitage in which he tells the corporation to “stop treating Jeremy Vine like a child as he is sick of it now”.

The email in question, between Armitage and Roger Leatham, who is currently the director of business affairs at BBC Studios, relates to Vine’s contract renewal in late 2007 and provides an insight into the BBC’s fraught negotiations with agents over exclusivity deals.

“The BBC must now stop bullying this artist and pushing him around on this deal and listen to him…,” wrote Armitage. “Stop treating him like a chattel and pay him properly in year three and lets have some mutual respect that is not meaningless words not backed up by money.

“Stop saying there is no more money as there is money for what ever you want it for, just find it and stop treating jeremy [sic] Vine like a child as he is sick of it now.”

At the time, the BBC was under pressure to raise Vine’s salary by 63 per cent, with competing offers allegedly close to £1m from ITV and Sky.

When a deal was finally struck, Leatham emailed colleagues saying: “It’s been a long slog but we got there in the end! This is actually a great result for us.” Two years later, the BBC reviewed Vine’s contract and Leatham reflected on what a “torturous” process it had been.

Armitage told The Independent: "The email says it all. I don't think there's anything to add, it was a negotiation 12 years ago."

Vine no longer works exclusively for the BBC but he is one of the broadcaster’s best-paid presenters with a salary of more than £290,000 for his work on Radio 2.