By Roz Morris, Managing Director, TV News London Ltd

It was the rat that finished him off.  BBC Sports presenter Gary Lineker had failed to understand that the image of a rat on a post he retweeted headlined  ‘Zionism explained in under 2 mins’ , was historically an image with antisemitic and Nazi connotations.  He deleted his message and apologised in a video but it was too late. He had done this sort of thing too many times before.

The BBC had finally lost patience with its most highly paid programme presenter.  It was reported that this post was ‘the final straw’ for BBC bosses and he presented his final Match of the Day at the end of May 2025.

Why? Because this was only the latest of a series of high-profile social media incidents that Lineker has generated.  All of which have clashed with or crashed into the BBC’s rules on preserving impartiality and have tested the meaning of the phrase ‘public service broadcasting’ in the age of social media.

It has been a long road. For example, in July 2018 Linker backed a campaign for a second Brexit referendum, saying: “Some things in life are more important than football.”

He endorsed the People’s Vote group when he said: “Whether you voted Leave or Remain, did anyone really vote for the mess we seem to be in, let alone the prospect of no deal with all the terrible consequences attached to that?”

This was a direct political comment and not something that the BBC expected to see from one of its high-profile presenters.  The BBC always says that it takes its impartiality on news events very seriously and that it is an essential part of its role as a public service broadcaster paid for by the licence fee.    

In the days before social media this role was easily understood and people working for BBC News and current affairs knew what the restrictions were. For example, presenters, reporters, and producers who stood for election for political parties either took leave while campaigning or resigned so as not to compromise impartiality in the BBC’s news production. 

But social media has created a world where anyone can put out their views on anything at any time. Supporters of Gary Lineker point out that he is not a politician, he’s a sports presenter so he is entitled to his opinions.

Critics argue that as a BBC sports presenter, paid by the licence fee, he should stay out of politics.

They claim it is his prominent position as presenter of BBC TV’s Match of the Day for more than 20 years which has made him even more famous than he was when a top footballer and goalscorer and so his political comments are inextricably linked to his position at the BBC and therefore not defensible.

It should be pointed out that the BBC has had to redefine and clarify its guidelines for its employees expressing political views on social media as a result of several years of Lineker’s expression of his opinions and it has not always been decisive in calling him out.

It has also been reported that many of Lineker’s colleagues at the BBC have been very uncomfortable seeing the corporation’s highest-paid star able to speak his mind in apparent contravention of impartiality guidelines, while staff have said they would be sacked for posting similar opinions.

In December 2018, when Lineker tweeted a series of messages criticising both the opposition Labour Party and the Conservative government, Jonathan Agnew, the former cricketer and BBC commentator wrote on Twitter: “Gary. You are the face of BBC Sport. Please observe BBC editorial guidelines and keep your political views, whatever they are and whatever the subject, to yourself. I’d be sacked if I followed your example.”

This did not deter Lineker, and he carried on making political comments. Here are a few more examples:

In October 2022, he was found to be in breach of the BBC’s impartiality guidelines after he criticised the Conservative Party’s acceptance of donations from Russian donors.

In November 2022 he criticised Qatar’s human rights record and allegations of corruption when he opened the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup.

In December 2022 he said the USA, which will co-host the World Cup in 2026 was ‘an extraordinarily racist country.’  

Then in March 2023 there was the really big row when the BBC suspended him from presenting Match of the Day following his tweet criticising the Conservative government’s “immeasurably cruel” asylum and migration policies. He compared language describing asylum plans by Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary then, as “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.

The BBC said that it believed Lineker’s “recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines” and that he “should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies”.

His fellow presenters, Ian Wright and Alan Shearer, also refused to appear and there was also a walkout of production staff. This led to Match of the Day programmes showing footage of games without any presenters.  

Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director General then, in the view of some, caved in, described Lineker as the ‘best sports presenter in the world’ and the programme resumed a normal service with all its presenters the following week.  

In January 2024 Lineker retweeted then deleted a post which called for Israel to be banned from international sporting events including football. He stated that he had misread a post by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and he believed that a ban had already been enforced.

Then finally in May 2025 the post with the rat, an anti-semitic symbol which he didn’t recognise, has led to him leaving the BBC earlier than his planned exit after next year’s World Cup in the USA. 

So what can we learn from all this?

Firstly, there is a lot of evidence that the BBC management is confused about enforcing their own rules on high profile stars.  And it’s not just Gary Lineker.  This is something which has also come up in criticisms of the BBC’s handling of rows and allegations about highly paid presenters like Jimmy Savile, Russell Brand, Tim Westwood and Huw Edwards.

Secondly, social media has massive influence, and anyone can read it, so journalists rely on it for creating rows about comments by famous people including celebrities and politicians.

Thirdly, even if you’re not famous, always be careful. Don’t post or repost or comment on something that you might have to delete and apologise for. Think about whether your political views could impact your employer’s reputation and contravene their social media guidelines.  People have been sacked for doing this.

As Gary Lineker has found out, you sometimes need to be better informed than you think you are before making a comment.

For more about the dos and don’ts of social media posting you can read Chapter 9 of my book The Visual Revolution Guidebook. 

At TV News London we always stress the importance of social media as part of our media training. To find out how you can get help with this email us on info@tvnewslondon.co.uk