The situation erupted on March 7, when the U.K.’s interior minister, home secretary Suella Braverman, unveiled the government’s hugely controversial new legislation purportedly aimed at cracking down on boats bringing migrants across the English channel from France.
Critics claimed that by speaking out on Twitter, Lineker had violated the BBC’s rules on impartiality, which require the broadcaster and its employees to be balanced in its presentation of news and issues. In criticizing the government’s policy, Lineker had supposedly crossed the line.
The BBC director-general Tim Davie actually stood as a Conservative councillor in the early 1990s and, since taking up his position at the network, has said BBC staff should avoid “virtue signaling,” an apparent snipe at expressing left-wing views, and argued against BBC comedy shows criticizing the government. There have been calls for both Davie and Sharp to resign. Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Sharp’s position was “increasingly untenable.
Then there is Andrew Neil, a former BBC presenter who fronted numerous political shows at the network and was a regular, politically partial, commentator on social media. Neil used Twitter to regularly share his own views on issues such as Brexit and climate change. He also chaired , one of the U.K.’s leading right-wing magazines, and a publication frequently mired in controversy over articles about race and religion. Neil eventually left the BBC to launch the right-wing news network GB News.
The BBC’s new social media rules were first introduced in 2020 and, for the first time, addressed those working — like Lineker — in “non-news” roles at the network. The timing of the new guidelines is significant. They came into place in October, 2020, a month after Lineker signed a new five-year contract with the BBC.
Enders notes that the media focus on Lineker and the BBC has “swamped the small boats policy that Gary had sought to highlight with his original tweet.”
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