'It's just ridiculous!' BBC star attacks broadcaster for extortionate salaries
Bragg's and Lineker's shows both draw in similar audience figures
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A BBC star has criticised the broadcaster for eye-watering salaries that it has dished out to some of its biggest stars.
Melvyn Bragg, presenter of Radio 4's In Our Time, has hit out at Gary Lineker’s salary, which he claims is 27 times higher than his own.
The 83-year-old radio veteran highlighted the pay disparities between the two presenters, even though his own show and Linker’s Match of the Day draw similar audience figures.
The Match of the Day and World Cup presenter took home up to £1,354,999 last year, unchanged from the previous year.
Eamonn Holmes on Gary Lineker
“He is paid 27 times more than I am. Something like that. It would be great if he was paid what I was paid. That would be fine. Which is perfectly all right," he said in an interview with The Times.
He praised Lineker, who he called “very good” at his job, and insisted that he was not trying to “get at him”.
Instead, he said: “I just think this is an example of the way the BBC is in a fix.
“Because that is, in my view, going to be one of the next points of attack. Look, you’re paying all this money to these people, and not very many people are watching, really. And is that what you stand for? And I think it’s an attack waiting to happen."
Data measuring audience figures from Barb shows that Match of the Day gets around 3 million viewers on a Saturday.
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Meanwhile, In Our Time often reports audience figures of over 2 million people.
Bragg also questioned whether some newsreaders were receiving extortionate salaries too.
News at Six and News at Ten anchor Sophie Raworth is paid between £365,000 and £369,999.
Currently suspended anchor Huw Edwards was paid up to £439,000 for his presenting duties.
Bragg added: “I mean, some of the payments of people reading Autocues for the news. It’s just ridiculous. And you think, really?”
Earlier this year, Lineker was temporarily suspended from the BBC when he made comments online comparing the Government's language on illegal immigration to Nazi Germany.