Karren Brady reveals she insisted on pay equality for The Apprentice as she addresses BBC pay row

The advisor to Lord Sugar and West Ham CEO spoke about the BBC gender pay row in the new edition of Radio Times, explaining: "The BBC is publicly funded so people want to know where their licence fee is spent and who gets what.

"Most shocking was the disparity between men and women effectively doing the same job," she continued. "Emily...what's her name? From Newsnight. Yes, Maitlis. She wasn't on the list but her counterpart, Evan Davis, is on almost double. Gary Linekar earns £1.8 million, while his female equivalent, Clare Balding, is on £199,000. He is not overpaid; she is shockingly underpaid. A lot of the men should be forcing the BBC to pay more."

Brady added that when it came to her appearance, she made sure that she was paid the same as her counterpart Claude Littner, fellow advisor to Lord Sugar.

"On The Apprentice, I'm 100 per cent certain I'm paid the same as Claude Littner," the businesswoman said. "I insisted on equality when I negotiated my contract. I would not have allowed anything else. Not all women are good at negotiating pay, but I'm not a television personality. I'm a CEO, and more than capable of negotiating for myself.

"Most of my senior people here at West Ham are women," club chief executive Brady added. "The footballers aside, more women than men are on high salaries. Speaking as a woman who got her CBE for services particularly to women in business, nothing pleases me more than to see other women doing well."

The Apprentice returns on Wednesday 4th October at 9pm on BBC1