Tory minister says Gary Lineker ‘entitled to his views’ amid BBC row over tweets
A Tory minister has said Gary Lineker is “entitled to his views” but that he should be “mindful” of how he uses his influence, amid a fresh row over BBC impartiality.
The Match of the Day host was criticised by Tory MPs, including Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, for joining numerous celebrities in signing a letter calling for the controversial Rwanda scheme to be scrapped.
Mr Lineker responded to the criticism by sending tweets to Mr Shapps, Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson and the Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis, which incoming BBC chairman Samir Shah told the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee on Wednesday “seem to breach” the rules.
Asked about the row on Thursday, Education Minister Damian Hinds told Sky News that he “always thought he was an outstanding goal-scorer”, but added that he was “not a huge fan” of discourse on social media.
“[I’m] not sure it is the best place to be having political discourse, not sure it always lends itself to decent balance,” he continued.
“Gary Lineker is completely entitled to his views, but I think everybody who is directly or indirectly in receipt of effectively a privileged position, everybody has to be mindful of how they use that.”
Referring to Mr Shapps’s criticisms of Mr Lineker, he said MPs and ministers “all engage where there is public discourse going on”.
“But I also think it’s really important to have polite and balanced and respectful engagement and you don’t always see that on big parts of social media,” Mr Hinds added.
It comes after Mr Shapps said Mr Lineker “should get on with commenting on football and stop meddling in these other areas” during an interview with ITV News on Monday.
Mr Lineker responded with a tweet referring to former aliases used by Mr Shapps prior to his entering politics, along with a message saying his criticisms were “a tad rich coming from someone who can’t even stick to one name”.
Mr Shah said the corporation “needs to find a solution” to arguments over impartiality and referred to the row involving Mr Lineker as a “psychodrama”.
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.”
Well-placed insiders have told i that they believe the comments – which the presenter had posted in response to personal criticism from MPs – do not fall foul of the guidelines and that Mr Shah’s suggestion was incorrect.
While he was Conservative Party chairman, Mr Shapps’s former company HowToCorp, which sold business “toolkits”, was investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority in 2012.
It was alleged that the venture misled the public by suggesting that Michael Green and Sebastian Fox, aliases used by Mr Shapps on the website, were genuine businessmen.
The investigation was later dropped following assurances from Mr Shapps over the future use of pseudonyms.
The Defence Secretary on Wednesday urged the BBC presenter to “stop commenting on politics”.
Mr Gullis, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, tweeted in response to Mr Shah’s comments: “I appreciate the incoming Chairman’s view. I will await to see if any action will be taken by Tim Davie.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “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.”
