Description
'Match of the Day' host says tweet about government's small boat policy was accurate and fair Gary Lineker has insisted that his controversial tweet about the government's asylum policy, which led to his temporary suspension as host of the Match of the Day, was "factually accurate" and "fair". The BBC pulled its highest-paid presenter last month after claiming the language used by the government to discuss its migration plans was not dissimilar to that used in 1930s Germany.
The other hosts boycotted the show in solidarity with Lineker, who later reprized his role without apology.
At the height of the dispute over the BBC's impartiality, company officials launched an independent review of its social media guide for freelancers.
Lineker has now said he stands by his comments, adding that when BBC director-general Tim Davie presented new social media guidelines in 2020, he agreed he would not stop "occasionally" to tweet about two topics: climate change and the refugees.
“I have worked with refugee charities for years. So when I saw the Suella Braverman film, I thought it was pretty horrible," he told Alastair Campbell in an interview for Men's Health UK magazine.
"When I sent that tweet, it honestly never occurred to me that this would lead to where I was going.
"Then the people who are attached to football intervened and I responded to one of them simply by saying that there was not a massive influx [of refugees], that the UK University accepts far fewer refugees than other European countries, it is cruel policy and the Language used in the debate reminds us of the debate in Germany in the 1930s.
"I think that's factually accurate."
He continued: "I wasn't ready to back down on that, especially since I felt and still feel that what I tweeted was correct and true.
"I wasn't abusive, I wasn't saying that she [Braverman] was a Nazi. I talked about the use of words like 'invasion,' 'swarms,' 'criminals,' and 'rapists,' which I think we need to be very careful about because it has consequences. real.
In the clip that started the dispute, in which she spoke about the illegal migration bill, Home Secretary Braverman said the UK asylum system had been overwhelmed and hotel accommodation for migrants it was costing almost £7 million per day. He stated that it was not fair that people who had traveled to other safe countries could "game the system".
Conservative MPs called Lineker's comments "unwelcome, ill-conceived and disgraceful", and Downing Street said they were unacceptable.
The dispute arose in the House of Commons when Sir Keir Starmer urged Rishi Sunak during Prime Minister's Questions to 'stand up to his snowflake MPs who are waging a war on free speech' while the Labor leader attacked the attempts by deputies to "cancel a station".
Lineker said that after the BBC took it off the air, he found it "difficult to see how this [could be resolved] unless they backed down".
He said: "In fairness to Tim Davie, he admitted they were wrong and fixed it."
The presenter constantly criticized the conservatives. Less than an hour after Boris Johnson's legal defense to the Partygate investigation was published, he tweeted about people "consistently telling lies".
The FA via Getty
Access
