The BBC’s top earner, radio presenter Chris Evans, is paid between £2.2m and £2.25m, more than four times the corporation’s highest earning woman Claudia Winkleman, it can be revealed.

The BBC’s newly published annual report also shows that seven stars are paid more than half a million pounds a year – earning more than director-general Tony Hall – and all of them are male.

Immediately after the salaries were revealed, Lord Hall was asked whether he felt “shame” over the gender pay gap, and whether he was worried that female stars might start making sex discrimination claims against the corporation.

Expecting allegations of sexism, the BBC has already said it wants to address a gender imbalance that saw women making up only a third of those in the organisation’s high-earning £150,000-plus pay bracket.

As the highest paid woman at the BBC, Radio 2 and Strictly Come Dancing presenter Ms Winkleman earns between £450,000 and £499,999.

This was more than the £350-399,999 earned by her fellow Strictly presenter Tess Daly, who does not also do radio, but it was dwarfed by the salary of Mr Evans, who last year presented Top Gear as well as the Radio 2 breakfast show.

The next most highly paid BBC star, Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, earned between £1.75m and £1,799,999, at least three and a half times as much as Ms Winkleman.

The five other stars placed by the BBC in salary bands of more than half a million were:

Chat show host Graham Norton, £850,000-£899,999

Radio presenter Jeremy Vine, £700,000-£749,999

Today presenter John Humphrys, £600,000-£649,999

BBC News presenter Huw Edwards, £550-£599,999

Radio 2 presenter Steve Wright, £500,000-£549,999

The BBC paid a total of 214 staff more than £150,000, giving most of them salaries above the £150,402 earned by Prime Minister Theresa May.

Among the 96 radio or TV stars earning more than £150,000 were:

BBC News political editor Laura Kuenssberg, £200,000-£249,999

Match of the Day pundit and former footballer Alan Shearer, £400,000-£449,999

Current affairs presenter Andrew Marr £400,000-£449,999

EastEnders actors Danny Dyer and Adam Woodyatt £200,000-£249,999.

The highest paid drama actor was Derek Thompson, who has been playing Charlie Fairhead in Casualty ever since the medical drama started in 1986. He is now paid between £350,000 and £399,999.

His Casualty co-star Amanda Mealing, who plays Connie Beauchamp and has also appeared in Holby City, is the BBC’s second highest paid actor and the only one in the £250,000-£299,999 pay bracket.

The BBC paid outgoing Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi between £200,000 and £249,999 last year, but the report was compiled before the announcement of Jodie Whittaker as the first female Time Lord and so no details of her salary were given.

The second highest female star was One Show presenter Alex Jones, who earned between £400,000 and £449,999. This was less than her fellow One Show presenter Matt Baker who was paid £450,000-£499,999, possibly because he commentated at the Rio Olympics and presents on Countryfile as well as working on the One Show.

The next highest earning female stars, all in the £350,000 to £399,999 bracket, were Ms Daly, news and Antiques Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce and radio presenter Vanessa Feltz.

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The salaries list could lead to awkwardness among the presenters of Radio 4’s flagship news programme Today.

John Humphrys earns between £600,000 and £649,000, for the morning news programme and other work, including presenting Mastermind.

Nick Robinson is on £250,000 to £299,000, ahead of female presenter Mishal Husain (£200,000 to £249,000), who also presents TV news for the corporation, and their colleague Sarah Montague does not make the £150,000 pay bracket.

At a press conference, reporters asked the BBC’s director-general Tony Hall, who is paid £450,000-£499,999, whether he felt “shame” about the gender pay gap and in particular Ms Montague’s failure to make the £150,000 pay bracket.

He was also asked whether he feared the salaries list would become a “lawyers’ charter”, with female stars complaining they had been the victims of discrimination.

Acknowledging the gender pay gap, he admitted: “Is this where we want to be? No.

“[But] are we pushing further and faster than any other broadcaster? Most certainly. We’ve set a clear target for 2020: we want all our lead and presenting roles to be equally divided between men and women.

“It’s already having an impact. If you look at those on the list who we have hired or promoted in the last three years, 60 per cent are women and nearly a fifth come from a BAME background.

“Meeting our goal on this is going to have a profound impact not just on the BBC, but the whole media industry. It’s going to change the market for talent in this country.”

Lord Hall said that the Today presenter who received the lowest pay for their duties on the programme was in fact male, and stressed that the BBC would now be "working carefully to manage our relationship with the talent on which we depend”.

The BBC had been extremely reluctant to reveal the salaries of its stars earning more than £150,000, but was told to do so by the Government as part of its charter renewal negotiations last year.

David Cameron had only asked for the names of stars earning more than £450,000 to be revealed, but the Government’s stance hardened after Theresa May became Prime Minister.

The BBC complained that the orders to publish stars’ salaries effectively created a “poachers’ charter”, handing an advantage to commercial rivals keen on enticing the corporation’s best-known names a time when competition in television was intensifying.

The BBC’s director of content, Charlotte Moore, told the Edinburgh Television Festival: “The outcome could well be that talent fees will go up because if everybody knows what everybody is being paid they will go ‘I want to be paid that'.”

Lord Hall repeated these arguments at the press conference, warning that making the salaries public would in fact lead to wage inflation, as stars were approached by commercial rivals who knew how much to offer them, or demanded the same pay as other BBC presenters or actors.

This meant, he said, that publishing the pay list “was not good value for money for our audience”, especially as rivals like Netflix, Amazon and Apple were prepared to poach stars and invest huge sums of money, meaning “We are now in a world of incredible competition and hyperinflation”.

But, he added: “The Government insisted, so today we are publishing the names of everyone who has been paid more than £150,000 from the licence fee last year.”

He stressed that in line with Government wishes, the list only detailed salaries drawn from licence fee payers' money. It gave no details of what stars were paid by private, independent production companies or by BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm.

The exclusion of talent paid through independent production companies appears to explain why stars including David Attenborough, Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch and former Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry do not appear on the BBC’s salary list.

It is also thought to mean that Graham Norton’s placing in the £850,000-£899,999 salary band does not include any payments made to him by his independent production company.

Defending the money paid to Mr Evans, Lord Hall said: “Chris Evans presents the most popular show on the most popular radio network in Europe.”

He added that the BBC tended to pay its stars less than commercial broadcasters, but it still had to pay salaries that were high enough to prevent them being poached.

“We do know from a number of presenters that they have been made offers by commercial radio,” said Lord Hall. “We have also lost people to Amazon and some other big players.”

Some stars have already spoken out about the awkwardness of having their salaries made public.

Speaking ahead of the annual report's publication, Andrew Marr pointed out that high-paid stars with other TV outlets did not have to reveal their salaries, and said: “It’s uncomfortable for all of us. I’m well paid but I’m much less overpaid, perhaps, than people working for rival organisations who won’t go through this process.”

In a statement issued after the salary list was published, Marr confirmed he was paid £400,475 a year for work that included his weekly Sunday morning show, radio presenting, documentaries, and coverage of major political events like the EU referendum.

He said: “In the past I have been offered deals by the BBC’s commercial rivals at a higher rate than the corporation would pay. As the BBC moves to deal with highly paid employees, my salary has been coming down. I now earn £139,000 a year less than I did two years ago.”

Gary Lineker appeared to take a more “jokey” tone, going on twitter hours before he was revealed as the BBC’s second highest earning star to say: “Happy BBC salary day. I blame my agent and the other TV channels that pay more. Now where did I put my tin helmet?”

Both Labour and the Conservatives criticised the BBC after the salaries were made public.

A Labour Party source said the gender pay gap was “obviously wrong”, and indicated that the BBC’s highest earners like Chris Evans and Gary Lineker might face significant pay cuts if Jeremy Corbyn became prime minister.

Labour’s promise of a maximum 20 to one ratio between the highest and lowest paid staff in public sector organisations would apply to those directly employed by the BBC, the source confirmed.

Theresa May said it was important the BBC “looks at the whole question of how they pay women and how they pay men for doing the same job”.

She told LBC: “The only reason we know about this though is because the Government required the BBC to publish these figures.

“I think what has happened today is we have seen the way the BBC is paying women less for doing the same job as the men.”

There was also signs of a possible backlash among some BBC presenters who did not make the £150,000-plus salary list.

Woman’s Hour presenter Jane Garvey posted a sarcastic tweet saying she was looking forward to Wednesday’s show and adding: “We’ll be discussing [the] gender pay gap. As we’ve done since 1946. Going well isn’t it?”

Countryfile presenter Charlotte Smith, who in 2010 was an employment tribunal witness in support of dropped presenter Miriam O’Reilly’s successful ageism claim against the BBC, responded by saying that she too was not on the list of high earners.

“I’m happy to accept a pay rise to help the BBC out with its gender pay gap problem,” added Ms Smith.

Ms Garvey replied that this was “a lovely suggestion”.

Ms Garvey’s original tweet was also retweeted by Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, who also didn’t make the £150,000-plus list.

BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker, however, suggested there was a reason why he was being paid more than his co-presenters Louise Minchin and Naga Munchetty, despite them having the same status on the morning TV show.

Walker said they all got the same pay for their BBC Breakfast appearances, but his additional work including Football Focus took his total earnings to £200,000-£249,999, beyond those of Munchetty – (listed by the BBC as a multi-role “presenter and contributor” on £150,000-£199,999) – and Minchin, who didn’t appear on the list.

Other commentators, including David Yelland, a former editor of the Sun, suggested the criticism of high BBC salaries could be unfair because the corporation’s talent might be getting paid less than their equivalents on commercial channels or newspaper executives.

The total of 96 stars earning more than £150,000 was a reduction on the 2016 annual report’s tally of 109 stars who earned £150,000.

Introducing the annual report, Lord Hall said the corporation had surpassed its target for £700m of savings in the past year.

He said: “Of the 43,000 talent contracts with the BBC last year, less than a quarter of one per cent were paid more than £150,000.

“The BBC produces some of the nation’s most loved television and radio and the most trusted news, while operating in a competitive market with the likes of Sky, ITV, Netflix and Amazon.

“It is widely acknowledged that on the the whole the BBC pays less than its competitors while delivering high-quality and award-winning content.