Gary Lineker responded to jibes over his BBC pay packet with typical humour

When something embarrassing happens to you at work, the hardest thing is working out how to respond. Do you own it or deny it? Solemnly apologise or try and laugh it off? Or follow Ronan’s advice and just say nothing at all?

These were the choices that BBC employees were faced with yesterday when the details of their pay packets were revealed to the public at a morning press briefing.

Naturally, the press had a field day, gleefully attacking various figures for earning too much (we were particularly amazed with Alan Shearer’s pay packet for Match of the Day), or drawing – rightfully – attention to the gender pay gap and lack of diversity amongst the top earners.

So what did those names at the centre of the discussion have to say for themselves?

The top dog, Chris Evans, who was revealed to be paid £2.2 million, has so far remained silent.

The next one down, Gary Lineker, decided to respond with humour:

Whilst he pointedly retweeted a comment by his old football chairman:

Meanwhile, Football Focus and BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker moved to clear up misconceptions over his pay packet:

Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine had a tough time during his phone-in show yesterday after being accused by a former miner of being “grossly, grossly overpaid” – along with everyone else on the list. Harry Jones from Glamorgan told Vine: "I enjoy your programme and I enjoy you personally but I'd like to ask you a direct question, are you embarrassed to pick up your pay cheque?"

Vine replied: "I just feel very lucky every day, is the answer to that."

Mr Jones asked: "Do you think you're overpaid?" to which Vine responded: "I don't really want to answer that because I don't think it's the moment for me."

This morning, he then tweeted out a cartoon relating to the gender pay gap:

Radio 4's Today presenter John Humphrys meanwhile admitted his salary of £600,000 was hard to justify.

"What do I do? On paper, absolutely nothing that justifies that huge amount of money, if you compare me with lots of other people who do visibly.

"If a doctor saves a child's life, if a nurse comforts a dying person, a fireman rushes into Grenfell Tower, then of course you could argue that compared with that sort of thing I'm not worth tuppence ha'penny. However we operate in a market place."

Political, documentary and radio host Andrew Marr confirmed he is paid £400,475 a year, describing how that is less than the £600,000 he was "widely reported" to be paid a couple of years ago.

That covered his Sunday morning politics show, radio work, documentaries, obituaries and work on key news events such as elections and referendums, he said. The presenter, who suffered a stroke in 2013, added: "As the BBC moves to deal with highly paid employees, my salary has been coming down. I now earn £139,000 a year less than I did two years ago. In the past I have been offered deals by the BBC's commercial rivals at a higher rate than the corporation would pay."

Radio 5’s Nicky Campbell kept it simple:

And Radio 1’s Scott Mills responded to a jibe by his sidekick Chris Stark: