Toby Young Toby Young

Why has Gary Lineker been appointed a visiting fellow at Oxford?

Congratulations to Gary Lineker OBE, who has just been appointed a visiting fellow to Lady Margaret Hall, an Oxford college. This coup was announced on Twitter earlier today by Alan Rusbridger, principal of LMH and ex-editor of the Guardian:

Lineker is among nine new fellows appointed by LMH, with Emma Watson becoming an associate fellow, having served as a visiting fellow from 2016-19 “with particular emphasis on promoting gender equality and women’s rights”, according to the college’s press release.

That’s Watson, not Lineker, who might have struggled to reconcile that with his refusal to take a pay cut as the BBC’s highest-paid star – he earns £1.75 million a year – to redress the corporation’s gender pay gap. Indeed, he was the only man on the BBC’s list of its highest-paid stars who refused to do so.

Exactly what Lineker’s qualifications are for taking up this new honorarium remain unclear.

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