Greg James has said he will use his platform to promote the cause of gender equality and diversity at the BBC.
The presenter has said he and other talent at the broadcaster pressured the director-general Lord Tony Hall over the contentious issue of gender inequality at the broadcaster.
He said he will continue to “shout about it” and warned others who care about equality “you can’t sit on your arse”.
Congrats @gregjames for your @TRICawards win… we’ll be listening out tomorrow morning to see if you mention @TRICawards – we hope so and hope you’ve had good afternoon x pic.twitter.com/QZOZD2hGDJ
— TRICawards (@TRICawards) March 12, 2019
He spoke out following news the Equality And Human Rights Commission has launched an investigation into the issue of gender pay at the BBC.
The presenter took over the breakfast show from Nick Grimshaw in 2018 and has been honoured for his work at the Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) Awards in London, where he picked up the prize for radio personality.
James said: “It’s really important to use the platform to say ‘the BBC is amazing but like any corporation there are things that you need to work on’.
“Nothing is sort of done, you don’t sit on your arse and go ‘we’ve done everything’, there’s always more you can do so we always shout about it.”
He added on gender pay and his new platform: “We’ve talked about it a lot.
“About a year and a half ago there was a big sort of drive from BBC members of staff to make a noise to the director-general to say ‘this needs to be sorted’.
“There’s lots of things that need to be sorted, things like diversity and gender pay.
“Those sorts of things are really important and I don’t think you can never shout about them enough
“Using the sort of position I’ve got on the breakfast show to say those things is really, really important.
“It’s about representing as many people as possible on the show but also people working on the show and in the building.”
The BBC has responded to the investigation saying it is a “logical” result of the information it has volunteered itself following reforms at the corporation.