Gary Lineker is 'dancing on the edge' of the BBC's new social media guidelines after taunting Grant Shapps in a tweet, ex-Radio 4 controller claims
Gary Lineker is 'dancing on the edge' of the BBC's new social media guidelines after taunting Grant Shapps in a tweet, according to a former BBC Radio 4 controller.
The Match of the Day presenter has been embroiled in a fresh dispute over his political views after previously sparking an impartiality row when he compared Suella Braverman's language about asylum seekers to that used in Nazi Germany.
The post prompted questions from Defence Secretary Mr Shapps - who said the former footballer should 'stop meddling in these other areas' - as well as Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis.
And now, former deputy director of BBC News and controller of Radio 4 from 2001 to 2010, Mark Damazer, has suggested the presenter is 'struggling quite hard' to square his conscience with his responsibilities to the BBC.
Speaking on the Beeb Watch podcast, Damazer said: 'He's dancing on the edge of the border of the [new social media] policy.
The Match of the Day presenter has been embroiled in a fresh dispute over his political views
Former deputy director of BBC News and controller of Radio 4 from 2001 to 2010, Mark Damazer, has suggested the presenter is 'struggling quite hard' to square his conscience with his responsibilities to the BBC
'I don't know Gary Lineker [but] let's give him some credit which is that, I suspect, he's struggling quite hard himself, at least to a degree, about where he feels his conscience impels him.
'And thus [struggling with] the exercise of his right to freedom of speech and his sense of the responsibilities that he's got to the BBC: not least as a result of the recent revision of the policy. I mean it's less than four months ago that John Hardy, the former chief executive at ITN, came up with this new set of guidelines.
'I think we can agree that what Gary Lineker is doing at the very least is pushing at the edge of it.'
Damazer, who served as Master of St Peter's College, Oxford, for nine years after leaving the BBC said it was clear that Lineker was not a news or current affairs presenter but that his association with the organisation was so strong that it led to 'blurred lines' amongst public perception.
The BBC has previously stated that the presenter's high profile comes with 'additional responsibility'.
It is understood that chiefs 'spoke to' Lineker this week about his tweets after he came under fire for signing an open letter criticising the Rwanda scheme, which aims to tackle the Channel migrant crisis by deporting asylum seekers to the east African country.
Lineker shared a collage of four images of Mr Shapps, all captioned with a different name, on X after the Defence Secretary questioned whether the BBC star should be expressing political views.
A tweet by Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker appeared to breach BBC impartiality guidelines, the Corporation's potential future chairman has said
Gary Lineker 's social media post about Defence Secretary Grant Shapps appears to breach BBC guidelines, Mr Shah says
On October 11, the former England striker posted on X, formally known as Twitter, a collage photo of four different images of Mr Shapps, all captioned with a different name
Mr Shapps had said the ex-footballer 'should stick to football and stop meddling in other matters'.
Lineker was hitting back after the Defence Secretary questioned whether the Match Of The Day host should express political views, claiming the 63-year-old 'should stick to football and stop meddling in other matters'.
Lineker wrote: 'A tad rich coming from someone who can't even stick to one name. 4 chaps Shapps'.
Mr Shapps was previously accused of breaching the code of conduct for ministers and MPs by continuing to work as a marketer of get-rich-quick schemes under the pseudonym Michael Green after entering Parliament. He has also been accused of using the pseudonyms Sebastian Fox and Corinne Stockheath.
Lineker has also hit out at Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis, who accused Lineker of breaching the BBC's impartiality rules last week. He wrote on social media: 'Jonathan hasn't read the new guidelines... or, should I say, had someone read them to him?'
It came after incoming BBC chairman Samir Shah told MPs that he thought the Match of the Day star's social media post 'on the face of it' breached impartiality guidelines.
Shah's predecessor, Richard Sharp, resigned from the role after failing to declare his connection to an £800,000 loan made to Boris Johnson.
He appeared to also swipe at the former footballer-turned-broadcaster by saying Lineker had not been 'helpful' by signing an open letter calling for Rishi Sunak's Government to scrap its Rwanda scheme.
Though insisting that Lineker signing of the letter had not broken any of the BBC's rules, Mr Shah believed that the star had breached guidelines at the 'third opportunity' in taunting Mr Shapps.
He said: 'I don't think it was very helpful either for Gary Lineker or the BBC or the cause he supports because it becomes a story about Gary Linker and the BBC. As far as I'm aware, the signing of the letter did not breach those guidelines.
'But the more recent tweet in which he identifies a politician does, on the face of it, seem to breach those guidelines. I'm not sure how egregious it is but I imagine the BBC is looking into it and considering its response.'
Gary Lineker has repeatedly come under fire for his political views, which critics say breach BBC impartiality rules
Mr Shah added: 'The initial two posts were considered, as far as I'm aware, that they did not breach but the last ones, that identified specifically two politicians, seems to me on the face of it to breach the guidelines.'
Earlier this year a number of BBC sport presenters, pundits, and commentators, went off-air in support of Lineker after he 'stepped back' from hosting Match of the Day following a backlash over comments made about the Government's rhetoric around immigration.
In a tweet he called Ms Braverman's measures to stop the small boats 'beyond awful' and 'an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s...'
Later, amid calls for him to be fired, the BBC star doubled down and said he would 'continue to try and speak out'.
Last year Lineker also spoke out in support of Just Stop Oil, saying that 'history will look back very favourably on these people' after protesters stormed the British Grand Prix.
A BBC spokesperson said previously: 'We aren't going to comment on individuals or indeed individual tweets.
'While the guidance does allow people to talk about issues that matter to them, it is also clear that individuals should be civil and not call into question anyone's character. We discuss issues that arise with presenters as necessary.'