BBC crisis: George Entwistle to keep £450,000 pay-off The pay-off is equivalent to £8,333 for every day he spent as director-general. Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC, admitted earlier this week that he gave Mr Entwistle a pay-off worth twice as much as he was entitled to so he would go quietly. On Monday Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, urged Mr Entwistle to forfeit part of his severance payment. However, a source close to Mr Entwistle said: "He is not going to give any of the money back. It's very unlikely he will shift on this position. Mr Entwistle was yesterday defended by a fellow executive. In a letter to BBC staff magazine Ariel, Mr Smith said that critics were "ignoring" the fact that Mr Entwistle had an "exemplary career." He said: "In all the endless copy and comment regarding the DG's severance pay, one important fact has either been played down or completely ignored. George devoted 23 years of his life to this organisation, building an exemplary career and earning the respect and devotion of everyone lucky enough to have ever worked with him. Anyone who doubts that need only to have experienced the atmosphere of sadness and disillusionment which hung over BBC Vision teams last Monday. He said that Mr Entwistle had fallen victim to "the ineptitude and silence of others." He said: "has now lost his job and been the victim of a political and media witch-hunt, which is a damning indictment of the society in which we all now live. George has not been 'rewarded for 54 days of failure. He has been compensated for having his BBC career destroyed in full view of the entire world. In the circumstances, it is the very least he and his family deserve. He should now have his privacy respected and be given time to recover from an experience which no-one would wish on their worst enemy, let alone a man of his intelligence, wit, vision, integrity and all round decency. According to William Hill, Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, is favourite for the post with odds of 10/11, closely followed by Tim Davie, the acting director-general, who has odds of 2/1. Caroline Thomson, the BBC's former chief operating officer, is 5/2 and Lord Hall is 5/1. Fran Unsworth, the new temporary head of BBC News, has appealed to staff not to Tweet about "our problems" as she tries to sort out the mess of the Newsnight scandal. Referring to the "tumultuous and very sad events of the past few days," Ms Unsworth sent an email to the corporation's staff saying: "It would be helpful if some of our problems were not played out publically across social media and in the pages of the national press."