The BBC has found Gary Lineker in breach of the broadcaster’s own impartiality guidelines after he tweeted about the Conservative party taking money from Russian donors.
The Match of the Day presenter made the comment in February while responding to the then-foreign secretary, Liz Truss. She had said English football teams should not play in the Champions League final then to be held in Russia, due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Lineker quote-tweeted Truss’s demand with the observation: “And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors?”
<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors? <a href=\"https://t.co/1QCzcmAGOF\">https://t.co/1QCzcmAGOF</a></p>— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/1496417024687357953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 23, 2022</a></blockquote>\n"}}”>
And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors? https://t.co/1QCzcmAGOF
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) February 23, 2022
The BBC’s internal complaints department concluded that this comment breached its impartiality guidelines. This was because Lineker went out of his way to “highlight a perceived inconsistency in the Conservative party’s approach, at a time when relations between the UK and Russia were the subject of significant public debate”.
As a result the presenter has now been publicly reprimanded.
The former England footballer is the BBC’s highest-paid star but because he works in the sports department he is not automatically subject to the ultra-strict social media guidelines that apply to news staff at the BBC.
Yet the BBC complaints department concluded that Lineker should be held to a higher standard than other sports employees due to his high profile as a well-known face of the corporation.
In his defence Lineker argued that his tweet was prompted by an article on football and was intended as a comment on football rather than on politics. BBC Sport management also argued that Lineker was posing a question rather than a statement of opinion on a politically controversial matter.
It would be illegal for the Conservative party to take money from Russian nationals but it has taken substantial donations from individuals of Russian origin, people with dual nationality, or those who made their money in the country.
Lineker’s tweets on topics such as the government and Brexit have long been a particular issue for the BBC, attracting criticism from rightwing newspapers and Conservative MPs.
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In response to government pressure, the BBC director general, Tim Davie, made the introduction of tough new social media guidelines one of his priorities when he took the job in 2020, with Lineker singled out as an individual who had caused headaches for the broadcaster.
The guidance asks individuals “to avoid taking sides on party political issues or political controversies and to take care when addressing public policy matters”.
Several leading BBC presenters have been exasperated by the new impartiality rules, with former Newsnight host Emily Maitlis expressing unhappiness with being found in breach of impartiality rules for retweeting a comment by Piers Morgan. Other staff have complained about the impact of the social media rules on discussing issues such as LGBT rights, while more junior staff often raise concerns that they are treated more harshly than leading stars when it comes to enforcement of the rules.
