One of the BBC's most senior journalists has accused the corporation of presiding over a "secretive and illegal pay culture" and said the organisation's management was "breaking equality law" in how it paid female staff.

In a bombshell letter addressed to BBC viewers and obtained by BuzzFeed News, Carrie Gracie made a series of sensational allegations, announcing that the "crisis" over a gender pay gap has led to her resignation as BBC China editor.

"With great regret, I have left my post as China editor to speak out publicly on a crisis of trust at the BBC," Gracie, who has been at the BBC for 30 years, wrote.

"The BBC belongs to you, the licence fee payer. I believe you have a right to know that it is breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure."

The letter was shared with dozens of people ahead of its planned release on Sunday evening.



Last year some of the most high-profile female BBC journalists and presenters called on the corporation to act after its annual report exposed a huge gender pay gap, revealing that two-thirds of its stars earning more than £150,000 are male.



Gracie slammed the BBC for the way it was reviewing the pay of female staff, and called for immediate change.



She wrote that "for far too long, a secretive and illegal BBC pay culture has inflicted dishonourable choices on those who enforce it. This must change."

The letter details Gracie's own experience of complaining about being paid 33% less than male international editors, and being offered what she calls an "unequal pay rise". She said this led to her decision to quit as China editor, a role she has held since 2013.

"Despite the BBC’s public insistence that my appointment demonstrated its commitment to gender equality, and despite my own insistence that equality was a condition of taking up the post, my managers had yet again judged that women's work was worth much less than men's," Gracie said in her letter.



She claimed "up to 200 women" have made complaints in the last six months since the BBC disclosed the pay details of its top earners.

"It is not men earning more because they do more of the jobs which pay better. It is men earning more in the same jobs or jobs of equal value," she said in her letter.

"It is pay discrimination and it is illegal."



Gracie predicts that the pay gap will lead to women leaving the BBC.

"Many have since sought pay equality through internal negotiation but managers still deny there is a problem," she wrote. "This bunker mentality is likely to end in a disastrous legal defeat for the BBC and an exodus of female talent at every level."



The letter addressed to BBC licence fee payers was intended to be published on Sunday night, ahead of Gracie's scheduled appearance as a guest cohost on the Today programme on Monday. While she is quitting the role of China editor, Gracie said she would return to her former role in the BBC News Channel newsroom, "where I expect to be paid equally".

In response to Gracie's damning allegations, a BBC spokesperson released a statement.

“Fairness in pay is vital," it read. "A significant number of organisations have now published their gender pay figures showing that we are performing considerably better than many and are well below the national average.

"Alongside that, we have already conducted a independent judge-led audit of pay for rank and file staff which showed 'no systemic discrimination against women'.

"A separate report for on-air staff will be published in the not too distant future."



Gracie's full letter can be read below:

