The BBC has announced that its highest-paid pundit, Gary Lineker, will “step back” from presenting the Match of the Day football (soccer) programme until an “agreement is reached on his social media use” after he compared the British government’s plans to curb illegal migration to Nazi Germany on his Twitter account.
In a statement released on Friday, Britain’s publicly-funded national broadcaster said that it determined Lineker’s “recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines” and that as a representative of the supposedly politically neutral BBC he should “keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies”.
“We have never said that Gary should be an opinion free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him, but we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies,” the statement added.
Linekar, a former English footballer turned sports presenter, has consistently spouted leftist talking points throughout his tenure as host of the BBC’s Match of The Day programme. Earlier this week, the BBC host sparked widespread outrage and condemnation, including from Home Secretary Suella Braverman, after he compared the government’s latest immigration plan to Nazi Germany.
“This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s,” Lineker wrote.
In response to the incendiary comments, Home Secretary Sullela Braverman, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps all condemned the BBC host, who it handed £1.35 million per year by the publicly-funded broadcaster, with anyone who watches live television — even if none of it is BBC content — required to support it through payment of a licence fee, or face criminal fines backed by possible prison time.
On Friday, a further 36 Conservative MPs and peers signed a letter to the director-general of the BBC, Tim Davie, calling upon the broadcaster to launch an independent investigation into Lineker’s comments and for the football presenter to issue a full apology “without reservation”.
Under the BBC’s social media guidelines, which they published in October of 2020, the broadcaster requires that “anyone working for the BBC is a representative of the organisation, both offline and also when online”.
While the guidelines differentiated between those who were working in the news and journalism wing of the broadcaster and those who do not, it said that prominent presenters in other areas such as Linekar should “nevertheless have an additional responsibility to the BBC because of their profile on the BBC”.
“We expect these individuals to avoid taking sides on party political issues or political controversies and to take care when addressing public policy matters,” the guidelines stated.
Lineker, specifically, has been persistent in spreading leftist viewpoints despite his commercial relationship with the “impartial” broadcaster.
Last year, for example, the sports presenter branded the United States as being “extraordinarily racist“ but accused of glossing over human rights violations of the Islamist kingdom of Qatar during the World Cup at the same time.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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