Give Gary Lineker a break and end the annual BBC salary horror show

The publication of the BBC’s ‘highest earners’ list is now little more than a turkey shoot, one that favours those who receive the biggest bucks but who have ways and means of keeping quiet about it, says Chris Blackhurst

Laughing all the way: Gary Lineker has been revealed as the top earner at the BBC for the seventh year in a row (AP)

It is that time of year again, folks – when we gawp and fume and rail against the earnings of the BBC’s star presenters.

Once again, Gary Lineker is top, taking home £1.35m, the same as the last two years, for his work on Match of the Day and Sports Personality of the Year. Next is Zoe Ball, on a salary of between £950,000 to £954,999 for hosting her Radio 2 breakfast show. This is down from last year’s £980,000 to £984,999. (Who did you hurt, Zoe – who?)

On it goes. Newsreader Huw Edwards also makes the list, pocketing a tidy £475,000 to £479,999, despite having been off-air most of the financial year while under investigation by the BBC. Edwards, who has now quit the News at Ten on “medical advice”, even managed to claim a £40,000 pay rise.

Remarkable. But the truth is that unless I am the sort of person who hates the BBC in all its forms and likes an excuse to give the corporation a good kicking, I struggle to care. Despite what its critics, led by some politicians and sections of the media, might say, these figures are… meaningless.

Most of these folk could obtain far more if they went into commercial broadcasting. Many of them can secure greater sums on the side through advertising and endorsements.

Yes, the BBC is a public sector organisation – but it is competing for a global audience with entertainment behemoths. Saying that Lineker or Edwards or Alan Shearer (Alan Shearer! Good luck to you, mate, but I do wish you would wear something other than beige or grey, you can afford it…) are paid a vaster amount than the prime minister and this is somehow an outrage, as many like to claim, is a nonsense. It’s simply not relevant to anything, except as a way of supplying them a battering.

These are not the receivers of the biggest bucks. No way. We only know how much this lot get because they are BBC staffers. Those who are employees of commercial production houses, or who are paid via the BBC’s commercial arm, keep their salaries secret. They include Michael McIntyre, Bradley Walsh, Tess Daly and those actors who populate EastEnders. If some of them are not on a multiplier of “a Gary”, I will attempt to scoff all at once, without water, 10 packets of that brand of crisps he promotes.

It’s hard to know what those who carp really desire. Would they like a BBC without the likes of Lineker et al? How would that be?

As it is, the BBC is suffering from a lack of talent – and, for that, read shortage of cash. Its schedules are tired and oh-so predictable, too many of its shows are cheap to make and barely watchable. Hire an ex-politician and send them on a barge cruise (we’re not told for how much), get some has-beens and unknowns to attempt to bake, ask someone if you can research their ancestry. It desperately requires shaking up.

Arguably, the BBC is attempting to do too much – too many channels, too much digital, too much time to be filled, too little genuine difference and quality. Not enough appeal to a younger generation that are getting their viewing and listening elsewhere.

None of this, though, is the fault of this illustrious mega-wonga bunch as doubtless they’re hailed in a tabloid recess somewhere.

It’s not as if they’re paid that much. “Oh yes, they are,” goes the chorus, since without the exposure from the Beeb they wouldn’t be so famous and able to command such high sums elsewhere. They’re exploiting the public service and us the taxpayer.

But so do medical consultants, to think of just one example. They’re trained at great public expense, they do some work for the NHS and rake in tonnes from their private practice. What’s the difference?

I might get aerated if we should learn what Claudia Winkleman is paid for her work on Strictly and The Traitors, or why exactly Huw received a 40-grand pay rise for doing precisely nothing. (It has rather taken the focus off his former colleagues, though, hasn’t it?)

Until then, I’ll save my opprobrium for proper scandals, such as contaminated blood, the Post Office, PPE. Things that are truly in the public interest, and not just of interest to the public.