BBC Journalist says Lineker’s asylum policy tweets ’cause difficulty’ for Beeb 

BBC‘s culture and media editor said it was ‘an understatement’ to say Gary Lineker‘s asylum policy tweets ’cause difficulty’ for the Beeb. 

Katie Razzall said that the BBC was the UK’s ‘most scrutinised media organisation in increasingly polarised times’, with director general Tim Davie having made impartiality a key element of his leadership. 

She said: ‘Trust in the corporation is at the heart of this. It matters if the public believes its public service broadcaster doesn’t represent their views, or that the BBC is shaped by a particular perspective.’

She said there was a bit difference between impartiality that staff and on-air talent who work in news were bound by and ‘due’ impartiality, which the BBC was committed to achieving across its outputs. 

Simply speaking, this means that while news should be giving objectively, ‘if someone says the earth is round, the BBC does not give equal weight to someone else who claims the earth is flat’, Ms Razzall said. 

She continued: ‘Lineker is a sports presenter. He tweets on his personal Twitter account.

‘If a news presenter commented, as he has done, about the government’s asylum policies, or about Brexit for example, they would at the very least receive a very serious warning.

‘Lineker, as somebody associated with sport for the BBC, and who argues he is a freelancer, is in a different position.

‘”I try to be sensible,” he told Radio 4’s Media Show in 2021, saying that as a freelancer he’s “considerate” to his employers when it comes to what he tweets.

‘He added that the BBC rules “only apply to people in news and current affairs”.’

She said while the BBC’s sports and news teams are distinct from one another, for audiences that distinction can be less clear, as they consider someone who is on the BBC as working for the BBC, like Lineker. 

The culture and media editor said: ‘The BBC is in a difficult position. They say a “frank” conversation is being had with Lineker. But in the end, what are the options?

‘With some Conservative MPs calling for him to be sacked, not for the first time, the pressure is mounting.’.

The BBC’s corporation’s highest paid star, who earns £1.35million a year from the licence fee payer, has attracted the wrath of his bosses for his divisive comments but is not responding to calls from them about the issue, the i reported. 

Today Downing Street called his intervention ‘not acceptable’ and ‘disappointing’, while Tory MPs have lined up to criticise the flagrant breach of BBC impartiality rules. 

Labour has also condemned the comments, with Sir Keir Starmer‘s spokesman saying comparisons with the Nazis ‘aren’t always the best way to make’ an argument. 

The BBC has said it expects to have a ‘frank conversation’ with the presenter over his comments about the UK’s asylum plan as critics demanded he gets the sack for the latest in a long series of impartiality breaches. 

Criticising Lineker, Energy Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter: ‘As a Jewish Cabinet minister I need no lessons about 1930s Germany from @GaryLineker.

‘Like Gary, I am hosting refugees in my own home, but unlike Gary, I do not believe it is either right or moral to tolerate criminal gangs trafficking vulnerable people across the Channel.’ 

Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson told MailOnline: ‘Yet again Gary Lineker has been allowed to kick about vile and baseless accusations, and the public are sick to the back teeth of it. It’s time to tackle this woke crisp salesman and hold him to account for the nonsense he spews.’

Former minister Robert Jenrick said: ‘My children are the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and I think those sorts of words should not be thrown around lightly. Gary Lineker is paid for by the British taxpayer. And it’s disappointing that he is so far out of step with the British public.’ 

In a defiant message to his 8.7million Twitter followers, Lineker said: ‘I have never known such love and support in my life than I’m getting this morning (England World Cup goals aside, possibly).

‘I want to thank each and every one of you. It means a lot. I’ll continue to try and speak up for those poor souls that have no voice. Cheers all’. 

The BBC said earlier today that Lineker would be ‘spoken to’ and ‘reminded of his responsibilities’. 

But Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP for South Thanet, said the comments were a ‘step too far’ and that the BBC must sack the presenter.

Jonathan Gullis, the Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, asked the public service broadcaster to ‘stand up’ to the outspoken presenter and ‘remind him his job is to talk football, not politics’. 

Tom Hunt, Tory MP for Ipswich, said: ‘I think people are used to Gary Lineker pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable for a highly paid BBC employee. However it’s my strong view that yesterday went way too far.

‘It’s imperative that the BBC management don’t try and brush this under the carpet and take strong action against him. 

‘He needs to know that he can’t act with impunity. Comparing a popular government Bill that commands support across the country and is 100 per cent necessary with Nazi Germany is abhorrent. I wait with baited breath to see what the BBC do.’

Yesterday Lineker shared online a video of Mrs Braverman outlining the Illegal Migration Bill, with the comment: ‘Good heavens, this is beyond awful.’ He then used his Twitter account to describe the plans as ‘immeasurably cruel’.

Accused of being out of order, the former England footballer, who has been criticised for previous anti-Tory comments, replied: ‘There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. 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, and I’m out of order?’

The remarks incensed Conservative MPs who accused the presenter of an ‘extraordinary and outrageous slur’.

The Home Secretary today said she felt that Lineker’s comments were ‘disappointing’. She told BBC Breakfast: ‘I think it’s unhelpful to compare our measures, which are lawful, proportionate and – indeed – compassionate, to 1930s Germany’.

Asked if he should resign or be sacked, she said: ‘That’s a matter for the BBC and they will resolve that.’ She invited Lineker to visit Kent to ‘see what the communities in Kent and Dover and actually all around the UK are feeling about this issue’.

The Match of the Day host has been repeatedly told off by the BBC for his often Left-wing tweets. In October last year he was found to have broken impartiality rules after criticising the Tories and Liz Truss – and has been warned several times about his comments on the Government and Brexit.

Mrs Braverman was on TV and radio today defending her bill, and had a dig at Lineker in the process.

She has insisted the changes would have a deterrent effect and stop people seeking to cross the English Channel in small boats.

She claimed the numbers would ‘fall dramatically’.

Asked how the Government was going to build the detention spaces necessary to house the tens of thousands of people crossing the Channel, the Home Secretary told the BBC: ‘We don’t need to build 50,000 new detention places.

‘We are going to increase our detention capacity, that’s absolutely certain.

‘We will see, based on other countries’ experiences, that once we’re able to relocate people who’ve come here illegally from the United Kingdom to another safe country, like Rwanda, or back to their own home country, then, actually, the numbers of people making the journey in the first place will fall dramatically.’

She also defended her controversial claim to MPs that ‘there are 100million people around the world who could qualify for protection under our current laws’ and ‘they are coming here’.

Asked about her comments on the BBC, the Home Secretary said: ‘I see my role as being honest… I’m not going to shy away from displaying the enormity of the problem that we are facing.

‘The UN itself has confirmed there are over 100million people who are displaced globally, because of all sorts of factors like conflict or persecution… and these are many people who would like to come to the United Kingdom.

‘The simple truth is that we cannot accept everybody who wants to come to the United Kingdom.’

Lineker, 62, is expected to be rebuked by bosses ‘very promptly’ a BBC source said. They added: ‘It’s clear that a line has been crossed.’

It comes after he was found to have broken BBC impartiality rules for singling out Conservatives over having ‘Russian donors’ in a post in February last year.

In a radio interview, Lineker also described remarks by Mrs Braverman about the Rwanda removals policy as ‘pretty abhorrent’.

In September last year the BBC faced a backlash over claims it had forced a senior journalist to apologise to Lineker for criticising the Match of the Day host’s anti-Government tweets.

That same month, director-general Tim Davie was forced to address the continued controversy over Lineker’s politicised tweets when he appeared in front of MPs. The BBC boss said the presenter’s approach to impartiality was a ‘work in progress’, but he claimed his social media behaviour had seen a ‘massive improvement’.

Mrs Braverman yesterday said judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg would be asked not to intervene in asylum policy. It is understood they will be told that if they fail to agree, UK domestic law will be changed to allow ministers to ignore their rulings.

All claims lodged by irregular migrants – such as small boat arrivals – will be ruled inadmissible as soon as they reach Britain. They will be detained, removed ‘in weeks’ to either their home country or a safe third country such as Rwanda – and banned from ever returning, Rishi Sunak said.

The vast majority will have to lodge appeals abroad. In other developments:

• Mr Sunak said migrant removal flights to Rwanda could begin by the summer;
• The PM vowed to overcome opposition in the courts and Parliament;
• Mrs Braverman warned there was a more than 50 per cent chance her Bill would fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights;
• Writing in the Mail today, she says ‘Establishment forces’ have blocked previous attempts to solve the Channel crisis;
• The UN’s refugee agency is ‘profoundly concerned’ by the plans, which it says amount to an asylum ban;
• It emerged that an Afghan waiting in a French camp to take a small boat to the UK was deported from Britain in 2019 after raping a girl of just 12;
• TikTok said it was cracking down on adverts by human traffickers.

Conservative MP Bill Cash said: ‘I am really very angry he should make such an extraordinary and outrageous slur, which is complete and total rubbish. We are trying to help people who otherwise are being taken by criminals on these boats.’

Fellow Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith added: ‘It is not just insulting to this nation and the generosity of Brits, but also grossly offensive to the victims of one of the most evil regimes in history, which we also fought against and took many refugees from. Lineker is out of order and needs to get out of his metropolitan bubble and learn some perspective.’

The BBC’s guidance says of its high-profile stars: ‘We expect these individuals to avoid taking sides on party political issues.’

A BBC spokesman said: ‘Individuals who work for us are aware of their responsibilities relating to social media. We have appropriate internal processes in place if required.’