How much pay makes you a top earner in the UK?

During a recent Question Time on the BBC, one of the audience members triggered somewhat of a debate around earnings in the UK. The gentleman in question accused Labour's Richard Burgon and his party of lying over their plan to target the rich in their manifesto tax plans - of which is the pledge to tax the top five percent of earners at a higher rate.

Making his point, he said: ”I am one of them people that he will tax more and I am nowhere near in the top 5 percent...that 5 percent is a lie". It emerged though, that he earns more than £80,000 per year which, as ONS data shows, puts him firmly in the top 5 percent of earners - and even the top 4 percent, to be more precise.

The point which the audience member was seemingly trying to make though, is that the new tax only targets employees - something which very few, if any, billionaires in the country are - saying: "You're not going after the billionaires, you're going after the employees where it's easy money because it's PAYE - I have no choice." At least finding some common ground, Burgon said on billionaires: “We’re told these people are wealth creators, but on the average wage in this country it would take 30,000 years to get a billion pounds", adding: "The people getting away with murder in reality are the billionaires.”