Mark Byford: £1m BBC payoff 'not greed'

Byford was the BBC's deputy director general between 2004-2011

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Mark Byford, the former deputy director general of the BBC, has defended a controversial pay-off package that saw him leave the BBC with £949,000.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire: "I absolutely don't think it was greed on my part at all".

Byford left the BBC in 2011 after being made redundant as part of drive to cut the number of highly-paid senior executives at the BBC.

He side-stepped questions about paying any of the money back.

He said the payoff was "properly approved" and added: "I absolutely think I've done no wrong."

A report by the National Audit Office, released in July this year, criticised the BBC for paying out £25m in severance to 150 outgoing senior BBC managers - £2m more than their contracts stipulated.

Byford's payment was revealed to be the highest at £949,000, after 32 years of service at the BBC.

Byford, speaking to Derbyshire during an interview to promote his new book, admitted it was a large sum but said that he had not wanted to leave the corporation.

"I lost my job, I was made redundant, I left when I was told to leave by the BBC. After 32 years of working there I was devoted to the corporation," said Byford.

"It was a lot of money and it was in a context that I was the number two at the BBC and I'd served a lot of years there.

"It was in a context of being made redundant in a very big cull of senior management. I didn't want to go, I loved my job but I absolutely understood that if it [redundancy] touched me I would accept it."

'Value for money'

Former director general Mark Thompson, who oversaw Byford's payment, was questioned by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee about the issue in September this year.

He told them that Byford's payoff had represented "value for money" and denied current director general Tony Hall's claims that the BBC had "lost its way".

Since taking up the job in April Lord Hall has introduced a cap on BBC severance payments of £150,000.