At least ten female BBC presenters are considering taking legal action against the Corporation over its gender pay gap.

News of the planned lawsuit emerged last night as panicked BBC bosses were desperately scrambling to stop rival broadcasters poaching Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.

On Wednesday the BBC was forced to declare that only a third of its 96 top earners were women – and the top seven were all men.

Jane Garvey (left), the presenter of Women's Hour, is leading a group of at least ten stars mulling legal options to narrow the BBC's gender pay gap, as Emily Maitlis considers leaving

The female presenters, led by Woman's Hour host Jane Garvey, were left furious by the revelations and have been contacting each other to work out the best way to force the BBC to close the pay gap.

Using 'strength in numbers', they plan to demand equal wages with men or mount a joint lawsuit against the broadcaster.

Miss Garvey told The Daily Telegraph: 'This is the sisterhood in full flow. I've never been so busy on the phone.'

She added that 'not a single male broadcaster' had been in touch to offer their support.

'Creative' boss on £220,000 pension Alan Yentob rakes in more than £20,000 for every episode of his little-watched late-night BBC art series Imagine. The show’s ratings have dipped from 936,000 per episode in 2014 to just 338,000 for its most recent edition, which followed artist Chris Ofili making a tapestry. Mr Yentob however still enjoys a BBC salary of up to £249,999 – £20,833 for each of the 12 episodes broadcast in the last tax year. The BBC points out that the 70-year-old former ‘creative’ chief is involved in researching, editing and producing each episode. He also received a £220,000 BBC pension last year. Buying the same pension today would cost £6.9million. In addition, Mr Yentob has a deal with the BBC’s commercial arm, handing him a cut every time an episode of Imagine is sold overseas. Advertisement

At the moment, ten women have joined the rebellion, but others are expected to do so over the coming days.

Miss Maitlis is understood to be 'furious' at revelations that she is paid significantly less than Evan Davis, her fellow Newsnight presenter.

Channel 4, Sky and ITV executives are said to be lining up a potential move for 46-year-old Miss Maitlis – with Sky understood to be the most likely to land her should a prospective BBC deal fall through.

It comes following revelations that the highly rated presenter earns less than £150,000 a year – and therefore did not feature on the corporation's highest earners list – while Davis, 55, earns up to £299,999 a year.

Miss Maitlis's agent, Alex Armitage, yesterday labelled the situation 'madness', and told The Times that terms were still being negotiated.

He said: 'Emily has been out of contract for a while and contract negotiations have been going on for months.'

A source confirmed that all three rival networks have made enquiries about the Cambridge graduate – but said Miss Maitlis was keen to stay at the BBC.

The insider said: 'Executives at all three of the major networks have been sniffing around. Emily is incredibly talented, a household name and would slot into any organisation; she could have her pick of channels.

'Initially, ITV were doing the frontrunning, but Sky would be the most natural fit and have the most opportunities in News.

'Discussions are still ongoing, and no formal offers have been made, but if the Beeb don't sort out a new contract, Emily has been told she will be snapped up within a week.

Maitlis's agent tweeted out this message after the pay revelations yesterday

Humphrys: I've just had a pay cut John Humphrys admitted yesterday that he had taken a pay cut in the past two weeks – just before the BBC’s ‘rich list’ of top talent was published. The Today host, pictured left, who was one of the BBC’s biggest-earners on between £600,000 and £650,000 a year, would not say how much of a cut he had taken. He also would not reveal whether the cut was reflected in the salary revealed on Wednesday. The revelation came as the BBC warned that scores of its highly paid male stars will be forced to take pay cuts as it tried to close the gap with female presenters. BBC boss James Purnell said on Newsnight that ‘quite a lot of men’ had already done so. During a testy exchange, host Kirsty Wark asked: ‘Are you going to say to Gary Lineker: “You’re earning, what is it, £2.6million – can you just give £600,000 up so we can bring new female talent on in sport?”’ Mr Purnell said: ‘Quite a lot of men have been taking pay cuts already… that is one of the levers we can pull, definitely, and we have been doing that.’ The Mail revealed before the BBC published its rich list that presenter Andrew Marr had his salary slashed by a quarter in 2015, when he decided to scale back his workload. He is now paid £400,425 a year. If Mr Humphrys, 73, took a hit at the same rate, he would still command nearly £500,000 a year and remain Today’s biggest earning presenter by some distance. He said: ‘Yes I have taken a pay cut…[it] was a couple of weeks ago’. Asked whether it would have been reflected in the rich list figure, he added: ‘The answer is I don’t know. I haven’t checked. I haven’t had a pay thingy since then.’ Mr Humphrys admitted that ‘absolutely nothing’ justified the sort of money he was paid, but added: ‘We operate in a market place and I think I provide a fairly useful service. Somebody has to do the job of trying to hold power to account.’ Advertisement

'But both Emily and her agent are desperate for her to remain at the BBC, and are doing everything to ensure new and improved terms are met. Talks are protracted but moving in the right direction.'

News of a potential move comes after Miss Maitlis made a jibe on stage about the situation.

Referring to the issue at the TechUK conference on Wednesday, she joked: 'You're an industry doing so well, soon you'll be able to afford a BBC man.'

And in an interview with ES Magazine she revealed the best piece of advice she had ever received was to 'ask for things at work'. She said: 'My colleague Kavita [Puri] said, 'You have to ask for things at work – women sit there waiting for things to come to them and not realising that actually all men are running off asking for them.

'Things don't just happen, you don't get something because you sit politely and are well behaved – that's not how it works.'

Miss Maitlis is said to be 'furious' at the situation, despite being offered a pay rise before details of the list were published.

A source claimed: 'They made her an offer and she did not accept it. As it stands, her future hangs in the balance. Emily is totally furious as she feels like she has been lied to. For her not to be on the list is unbelievable.'