New Question Time host Fiona Bruce has admitted she does not know how much she earns through her four jobs at the BBC.
And speaking to The Times, the television presenter rejected claims she was chosen to replace long-serving Question Time host David Dimbleby because she is a woman.
Bruce, 54, presents Antiques Roadshow and the art history series Fake Or Fortune?, as well being a newsreader on the BBC.
She will take over from Dimbleby, who left Question Time after 25 years in December, when the show returns on January 10.
Bruce, who was chosen ahead of some of the BBC’s biggest names including Kirsty Wark, Emily Maitlis, Victoria Derbyshire and Nick Robinson, dismissed the idea she got the job because the corporation wanted a female host.
She told the newspaper: “I thought all the people on that shortlist were brilliant. I didn’t see any people not there, men or women, who should have been on it.
“Of course a man could have got that job. It’s hugely insulting to suggest that I would have got the job if a man had been better than I was.
“I don’t think it’s a question about balancing it the other way. I think it’s allowing people to have a fair crack. It’s about having equality of opportunity. That’s ultimately all it’s about.”
And Bruce said “I haven’t actually worked out where I’m going to end up” in terms of her overall salary.
When the BBC revealed its annual list of high earners in 2017, Bruce was listed as earning £350,000.
That number dropped by £180,000 last year because Antiques Roadshow is produced by BBC Studios, which does not have to comply with transparency rules.
Bruce’s Question Time salary will be revealed in the next BBC list of high earners.