How touching. Several weeks after Gary Lineker’s sporting colleagues boycotted the BBC in solidarity during a row over his tweets, the Match of the Day presenter has revealed the whole affair moved him to tears.
Lineker, who is, he says ‘still bewildered’ by the scandal, revealed his reaction in a cosy chat with former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell and ex-Tory MP Rory Stewart on their podcast The Rest is Politics: Leading. (The podcast is produced by Goalhanger Podcasts, owned by none other than Lineker himself – a story for another day perhaps.)
The row, which pushed the Beeb to the brink, saw Lineker suspended for three days after he made comments comparing the Tories’ language on immigration to that of 1930s Germany. Many of Lineker’s BBC colleagues, including co-hosts Ian Wright and Alan Shearer, pulled out of their own presenting gigs in a show of support.
Regaling the incident to Campbell and Stewart, Lineker said: ‘Firstly when Ian Wright pulled out of the show, and then when Alan, Alan Shearer, did as well, I must admit I had a tear in my eye.
‘I think they’re doing it more for the cause, but to get that kind of team spirit, that kind of camaraderie and togetherness, it just moved me’, he added, ‘It was beautiful.’ Can someone pass the tissues?
Lineker, however, remained defiant over his original tweet and said he didn’t think it breached the BBC’s rules on impartiality. While he would ‘probably’ do things differently now ‘after the furore it has caused’, ‘I stick by those words and I think it’s true and factual.’
Moreover, the BBC’s highest paid TV presenter claimed he had an agreement with the corporation’s director general Tim Davie which allowed him to speak up about refugees and the climate crisis if he wanted to. ‘We had a discussion and I said to Tim there are two things I will continue to talk up on, I will not back down on, and he agreed.’
Lineker is now back on our screens, but Mr Steerpike wonders if he will find it within himself to stick to football from now on. Stay tuned…
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