‘You’re overpaid!’ How R2’s Vine got ambushed on air

JEREMY Vine was confronted live on air over his £700,000-plus pay packet by a Welsh construction worker.

Harry Jones phoned the broadcaster’s Radio 2 programme and asked: ‘How can you people justify the amount of money you are earning? You are grossly overpaid.’

Vine did not shy away from the row over his salary during his two-hour talk and music show, telling listeners: ‘You’ve probably seen my name on the list too – you’re quite welcome to call me and talk about it.’

In one excruciating exchange, he even quizzed his own boss, James Purnell, on how he ‘justified’ paying him so much – to which Mr Purnell replied that Vine was ‘fantastic’.

But it was the call-in from Mr Jones, of Neath, South Wales, that put the BBC’s highest paid journalist on the spot. Vine welcomed Mr Jones to the show by saying: ‘Harry, you can say whatever you want.’

The caller duly asked: ‘Are you embarrassed on the day you pick up your pay cheque?’ The broadcaster replied he just felt ‘very lucky every day’, but Mr Jones continued: ‘ Do you think that you are overpaid?’

Vine, rarely lost for words, said: ‘Erm, I don’t even really want to answer that, because I feel like it’s not the moment for me … ’

Mr Jones told him: ‘I work with men, in the coal industry, who are coal miners. I work in construction.

‘I see men buckle up to work all their life doing hard graft with nothing to show for it. How can you people justify the amount of money you are earning?’

He added: ‘There are men and women in this country who are working their fingers to the bone, who get nowhere the money you are earning and they are on the minimum wage and struggling to live and pay their rent every week.’

The broadcaster suggested it was ‘for the BBC to justify’, and asked his amateur inquisitor what he had thought of Mr Purnell, saying: ‘ We had the boss in – what did you think of what he had to say?’

Mr Jones replied: ‘I think it is a load of rubbish and I think he should be sacked and his pay should be docked as well. All of you, you are all grossly overpaid.’

Earlier, Vine had asked director of radio Mr Purnell: ‘I am listed as having a salary between £700,000 and £750,000. How do you justify that?’

Mr Purnell, who is paid £295,000 a year, said: ‘You are a fantastic broadcaster, you provide a huge public service. The last few weeks, you were talking about funeral care and how people were being ripped off for that.

‘That is something I am proud to have on the BBC, and plays a vital role in our democracy. There

‘Are you embarrassed?’

is a market for the Jeremy Vines.’ After the show, Vine, 52, left Wogan House on his bicycle, and told reporters: ‘None of us saw the list until this morning. I have never for a second doubted how lucky I am to work in there. And I am just sorry I think the BBC is really hurting today.’

Asked if his salary was good value, he said: ‘I think you have got to ask that of my bosses.’