Gary Lineker
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Probably few in the US had heard of Gary Lineker when over the weekend he threw the BBC, one of Britain’s most well-known and respected institutions worldwide, into what the media described as “a crisis like no other.”
Over the course of five chaotic days and countless headlines, sparked by a tweet from Lineker – a former football star and one of Britain’s most recognizable and popular television personalities since 1999 as host of the BBC’s flagship football show Match of the Day – the British public broadcaster became embroiled in a major public row over his impartiality and government influence over his operations that is likely to linger for some time to come.
The situation erupted on March 7 when Britain’s home secretary, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, presented the government’s highly controversial new legislation allegedly aimed at cracking down on boats bringing migrants from France across the English Channel. The law provides for the arrest and deportation of anyone arriving in England by boat, regardless of the validity of their refugee status, and has been widely condemned as a clear violation of the Refugee Convention, first signed in 1951 after World War II (Braverman himself conceded that it would most likely violate human rights laws). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it was “deeply concerned” by the law, describing it as an “asylum ban” that would effectively deny genuine refugees seeking safety and asylum a fair hearing.
In response to Braverman’s explanation video, which she posted on Twitter, Lineker — a staunch supporter of refugees and not averse to speaking out on such issues (more on that later) — tweeted his response to his more than 8 million followers.
“There isn’t a huge turnout [of refugees],” he wrote. “We take in far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is simply an immeasurably cruel policy, aimed at the most vulnerable, in language not unlike that of Germany in the 1930s.”
The reaction at first was as you would expect. Many praised Lineker for speaking out. Many condemned him for speaking out. The largely right-wing British press – which rarely misses an opportunity to blast the BBC or figures it considers politically left of it – went into attack mode. Right-wing tabloid The Chron – which frequently condemns the so-called “breakaway culture” – said Lineker should be fired.
Then the government got involved.
A day after Lineker’s tweet, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s press secretary told reporters it was “disappointing” to see “that kind of rhetoric” from someone whose salary is paid for by the license fee, the national television tax, which is the main source of funding for the BBC. They said it was “up to the BBC” to decide how to respond. Several government ministers also got involved, criticizing Lineker and calling on the BBC to sanction him.
Critics claimed that Lineker’s comments on Twitter violated the BBC’s impartiality rules, which require the broadcaster and its staff to present a balanced presentation of news and issues. By criticizing government policies, Lineker allegedly crossed a line. “Gary Lineker has grossly violated the BBC’s sacred impartiality,” roared a Mail opinion piece.
On March 9, two days after the tweet, with Lineker on the front pages of all UK newspapers, the BBC announced that he would be “retiring” from Match of the Day until there was an “agreed and clear position on his use of Social Media” give media.”
The reaction was immediate.
Within hours, Lineker’s two Match of the Day co-hosts Ian Wright and Alan Shearer (like Lineker, both acclaimed former football stars) announced that they would not be appearing on the show out of “solidarity” with their colleague. What ensued was a mutiny in the BBC’s sports department, with scores of TV and radio presenters who were set to host the weekend’s football shows also laid down tools and said they would not work while Lineker remained suspended. The collective action extended to the sport itself. The Premier League told players and managers they would not be required to conduct post-game interviews with Match of the Day, although in many cases these interviews are contractually required.
The result was a great farce. On Saturday, March 11th, the Match of the Day went live without a moderator, without comment, without interviews and without expert knowledge. Instead, the show featured a series of uncommented game highlights that played out like a video art installation. The program, which normally runs for over an hour, came to just under 20 minutes. Several BBC radio football programs had to be shut down altogether.
The BBC now faced a major problem, and one that was largely of its own making. Even the government may have sought to distance itself from the broadcaster, realizing the extent of the negative reaction – which added to the already mounting public opposition to its asylum policy. Prime Minister Sunak tried to clear his hands of the matter, saying it was “between Gary Lineker and the BBC” and that he hoped it would be resolved.
But, as many in the media have pointed out, there are deep ties between Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party and the BBC’s leadership. Unfortunately for the BBC, following Lineker’s departure, much attention has focused on the impartiality and political leanings – and close government ties – of these executives.
BBC Chairman Richard Sharp, a former banker who used to work with Sunak at Goldman Sachs, donated more than £400,000 ($486,000) to the Conservative Party and helped arrange an £800,000 ($972,000) loan for the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson then recommended him as chairman of the state broadcaster. This loan was not disclosed during Sharp’s appointment process. His appointment is currently under consideration.
BBC director-general Tim Davie was indeed a Conservative councilor in the early 1990s and has said since taking up his position at the station that BBC staff should avoid “virtue signals”, an obvious insult when it comes to left-wing views to express, and argues against BBC comedy shows that criticize the government.
As the noise intensified, both Davie and Sharp were asked to step down. Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labor Party, said Sharp’s position was “increasingly untenable”.
Another prominent Conservative on the BBC board is Robbie Gibb, who served as an adviser to former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May. Speaking on the Lineker situation on The News Agents podcast, Lewis Goodall, former political editor of BBC politics show Newsnight, recalled how Gibb made life “really difficult” for me when he was at the BBC, although he frequently warned became that Gibb was keeping an eye on him for his apparent left-leaning. “I’m sitting there and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m being lectured on impartiality by a guy who was literally Downing Street communications chief up until 12 months ago,'” Goodall added.
Many also pointed out that the BBC’s impartiality guidelines on Lineker’s refugee tweet were a red herring. In the past, Lineker and several other prominent BBC figures had posted and commented on politically sensitive issues without criticism from the broadcaster. Some of the most outspoken have been on the right side of the political spectrum.
Ahead of the June 2017 UK general election, Conservative businessman Alan Sugar, who hosts the BBC version of The Apprentice, posted a mock image of former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn alongside Adolf Hitler and urged Britons “not to vote for Corbyn. In the last election of 2019, Sugar was vocal in supporting then-Conservative leader Boris Johnson.
(Even Lineker himself tweeted “Bin Corbyn” in 2017, a highly politicized message that hardly raised an eyebrow outside of social media.)
Then there’s Andrew Neil, a former BBC presenter who has hosted numerous political shows on the network and has been a regular, politically partisan commentator on social media. Neil often used Twitter to share his own views on issues such as Brexit and climate change. While at the BBC he also ran The Spectator, one of the UK’s leading far-right magazines and a publication often mired in controversy over articles on race and religion. Neil eventually left the station to form right-wing news network GB News.
In response to complaints against Andrew Neil’s political statements, the BBC had argued that, as a freelancer rather than a full-time employee, Neil was not bound by the network’s impartiality rules when he was not speaking on air or on behalf of the network. Lineker, it should be noted, is also a freelancer and not a full-time employee of the BBC. Several argued that the BBC was simply choosing when to apply its rules.
In an interview – ironically with the BBC – on March 11, Davie was asked whether Lineker would have been suspended if he had publicly supported the government’s new asylum policy rather than criticizing it. “I won’t go into hypotheses,” the general director evaded.
On Monday March 14, five days after the initial tweet and after the BBC was forced to apologize for its limited sports coverage over the weekend and the focus had now shifted sharply to the impartiality – or not – of its officers the BBC Lineker on again. However, it also said it would launch an independent review of its social media rules, with Davie acknowledging the “possible confusion caused by the gray areas” of their policies.
First introduced in 2020, the BBC’s new social media rules were aimed for the first time at those who – like Lineker – work in “non-news” roles on the network. The timing of the new guidelines is significant as they came into effect in October 2020, a month after Lineker signed a new five-year deal with the BBC.
“These guidelines were obviously never reflected in the contract, nor probably in those of the many other freelancers at BBC Sport,” says Alice Enders, research director at Enders Analysis. Had the BBC fired him, she notes, the network would have been obligated to pay out Lineker’s contract in full.
But the detailed details of the BBC’s impartiality rules and Lineker’s contract are not really the point. Instead, the media storm surrounding the presenter and his political tweet has uncovered a larger debate surrounding the BBC over how much influence the Conservative government wields over the country’s public broadcaster.
“What seems clear is that the BBC doesn’t want that [Lineker] to criticize incumbent members of the government,” says Enders. “And the last five years have shown how mean and vicious some of these politicians can be and how much they would like the BBC’s license fee to vanish in a puff of smoke so they can hog the airwaves with their own idiosyncratic shows.”
Enders notes that the media focus on Lineker and the BBC – which made headlines from day one of the crisis – had “swamped the small boat politics that Gary wanted to highlight with his original tweet” (something several commentators have hinted at was the government intention in the first place).
Lineker, who neither apologized nor deleted his original tweet, will return to work at the BBC this Saturday hosting Match of the Day. But the controversy seems to be rumbling loudly.
Several Conservative politicians have expressed outrage at Lineker’s reinstatement, with one claiming the BBC has now given Lineker “carte blanche” to “push his highly political anti-government agenda and offend many with impunity”. Others claimed that the Lineker saga further strengthened their argument for abolishing the BBC license fee altogether.
And while the government – and much of the press – may be furious at Lineker’s supposed victory, the UK public’s week of chaos gave the British public, for those not on the right, a keen insight into the extent of the links between the Conservatives and the BBC. A new YouGov poll released on Tuesday showed 38% of Brits think BBC chairman Richard Sharp should resign over conflicts of interest surrounding Boris Johnson and the loan (vs. 16% who believe he should stay). .
“I think what happened here is Gary Lineker 1: BBC credibility zero,” said Craig Oliver, a former BBC news manager who later served as Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications director (and another example of what many as a “revolving door” between the network and the government).
“This week’s story will continue unless the BBC is truly independent of the government of the day,” tweeted Armando Iannucci, creator of Veep and The Thick of It, on the day of Lineker’s reinstatement. “The appointment of the board and chief executive and the determination of funding must be visibly separated from Downing Street. Otherwise, the public will lose trust in the BBC.”
There’s no timetable for when the BBC’s review of its social media guidelines will begin or end, and, perhaps crucially, no details on who will lead it. But Lineker made it clear, of course with a tweet, that his position on the matter and on the government’s refugee policy has not changed.
“As difficult as the last few days have been, it just doesn’t compare to having to flee your homeland from persecution or war to seek refuge in a country far away,” he wrote after his re-appointment. “It’s heartwarming to see the empathy for your plight on the part of so many of you. We remain a country of mostly tolerant, hospitable and generous people. Thank you very much.”