Alastair Campbell let the mask slip on Newsnight yesterday. During a segment on the future of Brexit, Bad Al lost his rag with co-panelist Alex Phillips. In the rare moments Campbell wasn’t interrupting Phillips, he could be heard huffing and puffing off camera. One patronising exchange came towards the end of the interview:

AP: It’s very rich a man who essentially was part of telling lies to invade a country to accuse me of dishonesty…

AC: I think you may have lost the argument there, my dear. If I may patronise you even more.

Alastair wasn’t going to let it end there, as he then turned on host Victoria Derbyshire for one final tirade. Victoria calmly responded, “I am not going to take that, with respect, from you Mr Campbell”.

In the aftermath of her appearance, Phillips took to Twitter to highlight Bad Al’s behaviour. After coming off air “shaking at his rudeness” she criticised him for “outright bullying, intimidation and frankly thinly veiled misogyny”.

I came off air shaking at his rudeness.

Quite astonishing.

Let’s have a political debate but this was outright bullying, intimidation and frankly thinly veiled misogyny.

I would feel quite ashamed of myself if I acted like that on air. It was not a good look https://t.co/UAaERZmnco

— Alex Phillips (@ThatAlexWoman) May 11, 2023

In a reply of his own, Campbell did accept “it was not exactly disagreeing agreeably”, though refused to apologise and instead doubled down on his argument. Raab lost his job for using “physical gestures” in an intimidating way; Campbell’s behaviour went beyond that… 

UPDATE: Campbell has now tweeted that he has apologised to Victoria Derbyshire.

Lord Baker couldn’t work out how to stop his mobile phone ringing during his interview last night. In the end after the fourth time he handed it to Victoria Derbyshire to deal with. We’ve all had it happen…

The BBC today published its annual report, including the salaries of all earners over £150,000. Listed below are the politicos and other highest earners, with a percentage change on their figures from last year. Despite the supposed need for cutbacks, a lot of the figures appear to have remained very stable… 

Today

• Mishal Husain – £279,999 (NC)
• Nick Robinson – £274,999 (NC)
• Justin Webb – £259,999 (NC)
• Martha Kearney – £259,999 (+2%)

World at One

• Sarah Montague – £249,999 (NC)

PM

• Evan Davis – £274,999 (NC)

BBC Breakfast

• Naga Munchetty – £369,999 (+42%)
• Dan Walker – £224,999 (-25%)
• Charlie Stayt – £194,999 (NC)

BBC News at Six and Ten

• Huw Edwards – £414,999 (-3.5%)
• Gerge Alagiah – £329,999 (NC)
• Sophie Rayworth – £309,999  (+8.7%)

Question Time

• Fiona Bruce – £414,999 (+1.2%)

Andrew Marr Show

• Andrew Marr – £269,999 (-21%)

Newsnight

• Emily Maitlis – £329,999 (NC)
• Kirsty Wark – £249,999 (+16%)

BBC News

• Clive Myrie – £259,999 (+24%)
• Reeta Chakrabarti – £204,999 (+14%)
• Victoria Derbyshire – £244,999 (+40%)
• Ben Brown – £174,999 (NC)

On-air editors and correspondents

• Amol Rajan – £329,999 (+35%)
• Faisal Islam – £244,999 (+17%)
• Jeremy Bowen – £234,999 (+4.5%)
• Jon Sopel – £229,999 (-2.1%)
• Katya Adler – £219,999 (-2.2%)

Non-politics or news

• Gary Lineker – £1,350,000 (-0.7%)
• Zoe Ball – £980,000 (-14%)
• Steve Wright – £454,999 (-3.2%)
• Alan Shearer – £454,999 (+15%)
• Stephen Nolan – £420,000 (-2.4%)

Guido congratulates Amol Rajan and Clive Myrie for their wage hikes, while both Naga and Faisal Islam have seen theirs rise significantly for the second year in a row. Victoria Derbyshire is also a big winner, with her pay rising significantly even before she takes over at Newsnight. Gary Lineker will no doubt be distraught at both his £10,000 cut and the BBC’s failure to close the gender pay gap, which increased to 5.1%. The cost of living crisis must really sting on £1,350,000…

Read the full report here.