Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few days, you’re probably aware of the snowballing story of Gary Lineker’s Twitter account.
What started out as what Lineker presumably thought was a fairly innocuous tweet in support of asylum seekers has rapidly grown into headline news across the UK and even global media, calling into question the role of the BBC, the relevance and efficiency of its impartiality rules, demands for the sacking of Lineker in one corner, and BBC top brass in the other, and what it would be no exaggeration to describe as a full-blown crisis for the BBC.
It’s been a rapidly evolving, and ever-expanding tale, so here we try and break down some of the key developments to date in what looks like a story that won’t be going away any time soon.
Background
It all began last Tuesday, when Home Secretary Suella Braverman outlined her new plans to deal with asylum seekers entering the UK on small boats, including deportations to Rwanda and a new, and possibly illegal, plan to deny anyone entering the UK illegally the right to ever enter the UK or apply for asylum again, regardless of their circumstances. Lineker tweeted describing her plans as “beyond awful” and the language used as “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.”
Ministers and sections of the right-wing media were quick to pounce, demanding that long-time woke bête noire Lineker be punished, frequently citing BBC impartiality rules and claiming that Lineker was out of step with the British public.
Large sections of the British public disagreed, and Lineker took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to thank the public for their “love and support.”
So far, so standard-issue Gary Lineker Tweet row, and on Thursday the Match of the Day presenter and former England captain told reporters outside his London home that he did not fear suspension over the matter, and returned to Twitter to express his satisfaction that the “ridiculously out-of-proportion story” seemed to be dying down.
Well, it’s been an interesting couple of days. Happy that this ridiculously out of proportion story seems to be abating and very much looking forward to presenting @BBCMOTD on Saturday. Thanks again for all your incredible support. It’s been overwhelming.
— Gary Lineker —- (@GaryLineker) March 9, 2023
He had spoken too soon, as we would soon learn.
Friday – Lineker to “step back” from MOTD
If you agreed the story was out of proportion on Thursday, hold on to your hats.
Just as things seemed to be blowing over, around 5pm on Friday – traditionally a good time to bury bad news as the nation’s hacks head home for the weekend, though not on this occasion it would transpire – the BBC announced that Lineker would “step back” from presenting his hugely popular Saturday night show until “we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.”
The initial wording of the announcement seemed to imply that Lineker had made this decision, but that quickly unravelled in a surreal 5 News broadcast which saw Lineker texting anchor, and another former MOTD host, Dan Walker live on air to confirm that he had very much been told by the BBC that he would be “stepping back.”
