A former war reporter has attacked Huw Edwards' "stratospheric' salary at the BBC claiming his job "requires no remarkable gifts'.
Martin Bell, a former BBC journalist and independent MP, criticised the "outrageous" salaries of BBC stars for 2018/19.
The highest earner was Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker who earns around £1.75m while former Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans earned around £1.25m before he left for Virgin Radio in January and Graham Norton earned between £610k-£614k.
Welsh newsreader Huw Edwards was the BBC's fourth highest paid star with a salary between £490k-£494k, having taken a salary cut from 2017/18 which was between £520k-£529k.
The salaries have come under criticism in light of the corporation announcing it would be axing free TV licences for the over 75s.
In his Daily Mail column on Wednesday, Martin Bell, who worked for the corporation between 1962 and 1997, said the BBC's salaries were "more outrageous than ever" and were a "kick in the teeth" for every licence fee-payer and especially the over 75's.
He added: "The best-paid journalist, newsreader Huw Edward, is on £490,000. To a reporter of my generation, that sum is unthinkable.
"Bear in mind that veteran newsreader Kenneth Kendall's final salary at the BBC in 1981 was £16,000 a year - just over £60,000 in today's money. That's an eighth of Edwards' salary and Kendall commanded audiences of eight million compared to around five now.
"When I left the BBC in 1997, after 35 years' service, I was being paid a salary of £70,000: a good wage, certainly, but far from the stratospheric salaries commanded today.
"While reporting from Sarajevo in 1992, I was hit by mortar shrapnel. Some of the metal is still in my stomach: doctors say it would be too dangerous to attempt to take it out. I can assure you that, in contrast to the perils of war reporting, reading an autocue in a TV studio requires no remarkable gifts.
"The 'talent' would be alarmed to realise how many untrained people could do it just as well."
Other Welsh stars who appeared on the BBC's high earners list included sports and radio presenter Jason Mohammad with a salary of £355k-£359k, Radio 4 and Mastermind presenter John Humphreys with a salary of £290k-£294k, sports presenter Gabby Logan with a salary of £290k-£294k, and the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen with a salary of £215k-£219k.
