FURY AT LINEKER LICENCE FEE TWEET

MILLIONAIRE Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker received a barrage of abuse online after he joked about a rise in the BBC licence fee.

The former England striker, 60 ( left), had quote-tweeted a message from the BBC about the hated licence – which we have to pay by law – going up by £1.50 to £159 a year.

Lineker, who was until last year the Beeb’s highest paid star on £1.76 million a year, tweeted: “But I’ve just taken a pay cut,” with a tongue-pulling emoji.

But if the telly host – who on top of his MoTD earnings rakes in even more by presenting the Champions League for BT Sport and has been the face of Walkers Crisps since 1994 – thought he was being dry-witted, it fell flat with Twitter users.

Commentator @dean_deano88 said: “Own goal scored there Gary. There are people losing their jobs, kids apparently starving, and you put out a tweet about a pay cut. You still earn in excess of £1m a year.”

Referencing that not paying for a BBC licence can land you in jail, Masha added: “I’ve had NO INCOME since March but still have to pay your bloody wages.”

Others branded the jug-eared ex-footballer a “c**t”, a “twat”, “a face for radio” and far worse insults which are too rude to print in a family newspaper.

Last August the BBC issued 4.5 million UK pensioners with a licence fee bill for the first time.

But campaign group Silver Voices says a million pensioners are still to pay, leaving the Beeb out of pocket by £160m.