Gary Lineker was criticized today for being a “law unto himself” after calling Suella Braverman’s comments regarding Rwanda ‘pretty abhorrent.’
The Match of the Day host made his remarks a few days after the BBC determined that his anti-Tory tweet regarding the party’s “Russian funders” violated impartiality guidelines.
Today, Julian Knight, a Tory MP, said that Lineker “runs roughshod” over the corporation’s rules and asked that the BBC bring him to “heel.”
Before last week’s decision on his tweet about a Russian benefactor, former England great Lineker, 61, claimed he was ready to “speak up” on humanitarian matters in a radio interview.
His remarks are in reference to statements the Home Secretary made at a Tory Party conference side event. She said that it was her “goal” for one of the aircraft carrying refugees to Rwanda to leave before Christmas.
The celebrity spoke this week during an interview with Nihal Arthanayake of Radio 5 Live on how he approaches the impartiality regulations.
They were “just recommendations,” he said, and “not in my contract.” Unbias was “absolutely hard to describe,” he said.
Lineker, who earned over £1.35 million as the BBC’s highest-paid celebrity last year, said on the program: “I’m quite strong on humanitarian problems, like refugees, asylum seekers… We obviously can’t have everyone, but we still need to do our bit, and I’ll keep doing that.
Suella Braverman, for instance, who delivers the Rwandan [address], said: “You know, her desire is to see them flying off.”
I will stand out and say that I find it to be rather reprehensible, but I also believe that it is a humanitarian problem. I would respond precisely the same way if the Labour Party were in power and saying the same thing.
When you think about it, impartiality is truly utterly hard to describe, he said.
On social media, he said that someone with “a lot of followers” may “put their thoughts on” and “try to make a difference.”
The BBC is especially embarrassed by the comments since, as of last Thursday, it had just determined that Lineker had violated its impartiality policies.
‘I am astounded that someone who works at the BBC should make such a comment about the Home Secretary,’ said Mr. Knight, chairman of the select committee for digital, culture, media, and sport, to The Mail+. ‘Frankly, it’s yet another example of how he runs roughshod over the impartiality rules at the BBC and is a law unto himself.
“If the BBC is serious about fairness, it really is about time that it brought Gary Lineker to heel.”
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit upheld a complaint last week over a post about a Russian donor because it “did not match the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality.”
It was in reference to a tweet Lineker had made in February in response to requests from Liz Truss, who was the foreign secretary at the time, for English clubs to skip the Champions League final in Russia. And her party would return their funds from Russian benefactors, he wrote?
The ECU had emphasized that even if the broadcaster was not a journalist, he was “one of the highest profile personalities on the BBC” and that those with his profile had “extra duty.”
According to the corporation’s policies, we anticipate these persons to avoid taking sides in political debates or party-related concerns and to exercise caution while discussing public policy topics.
The action was seen as the BBC taking a more aggressive position against their star, who has more than 8.5 million Twitter followers.