Gender pay equality is something that is rarely far below the public consciousness. For centuries, women have suffered inequalities: lower wages are one such problem, but others include not having the vote until 1918, but only over the age of 30. Full voting equality was not introduced until 1928. Until the Equal Pay Act 1970, they were expected to take lower pay and this was reinforced by the 2010 Equality Act. These acts ensure that women must not be paid any less for the same job as men and it is the case that this law, in a tightly defined sense, seems to work.

However, there is still an overall discrepancy between male and female overall pay that is down to the so-called glass ceiling, the concept that women do not achieve the same higher positions that men do. We may be on our second woman Prime Minister, our first woman as the head of the supreme court, and our third woman home secretary, but there are still far too few women in top or senior jobs. As co-chair of the Conservative Women 2 Win campaign, seeking to bring more women into parliament, I was delighted that we have upped the number of women MPs without resorting to women only shortlists, but still recognise that we need to do more.

So when the BBC, reluctantly, published its higher level pay scales, I was as gobsmacked as any that the much loved institution of the BBC had blown to smithereens the concept of paying equal amounts for the same job, irrespective of gender. It has always been the case that whilst the media bemoaned the fact that we have far too few women in parliament, there was a vanishingly small number of women political editors. But this revelation about the BBC is simply dire. It should also be remembered that many of the high paid ‘talent’ are not on the list. Some senior presenters, for example, work on a service contract so their personal management company is paid an undisclosed sum, that then pays the star. This gets around both employer’s NI contribution and the disclosure rule.

The BBC does a staggering amount of good work, and it is global brand that helps Britain’s soft power around the world. But these revelations suggest it is an institution struggling to get out of the 1950s and completely undermines its ability to question gender pay inequality.