BBC slammed in Gary Lineker row after making 'rubbish' excuse for Match of the Day star

The broadcaster insisted the star, who retweeted the call for Israel to be banned from international football, “wasn’t taking a position” in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Stephen Crabb MP, a former cabinet minister and the parliamentary chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel dismissed the claim as “Rubbish”.

He said: “Everything I’ve seen of Gary Lineker suggests to me that he is an intelligent man.

“I cannot see how the original tweet could have been misinterpreted or not properly understood.”

“I felt extremely strongly about just how inappropriate it was for anybody connected to the BBC, to appear to be endorsing a tweet like that.”

“The BBC have faced many questions about how it has covered the conflict in Gaza since October 7th.”

“Frankly, it needs to be ensuring that its highest profile presenters are not engaging in any activity that shows bias and hostility to Israel.”

Match of the Day star Lineker, 63, provoked outrage after the tweet he reposted on Saturday from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.

He was condemned by MPs and Jewish leaders and has since taken down his retweet which called for Israel to be ousted from all global tournaments “until it ends its grave violations of international law”.

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism added: “One almost feels sorry for the BBC, which by now must have an entire team dedicated to damage control for this one celebrity. Each excuse that that team makes for him seems to be more creative than the last.”

The spokesman added: “Gary Lineker has a lot to say about a lot of things, but antisemitism does not appear to be one of them.”

“At a time of record levels of racism against Jews, not a peep. But he has found the time to amplify a call to suspend the world’s only Jewish state from international sports.”

“His priorities are clear.”

“The fact that a Hamas-run network has commended him for his post shows the sort of audience to which he is, presumably unwittingly, catering.”

Tory MPs demanded the BBC intervene to sanction its highest-paid presenter who earns £1.3million, as they said they were waiting for “international diplomat and foreign policy expert, Gary Lineker” to condemn Hamas’ atrocities.

Andrew Percy, a prominent Jewish Tory MP, said: “Gary Lineker is an ill-informed, ignorant commentator on the Middle East.

“The movement [to boycott Israel] is a racist, anti-Semitic campaign and nobody who receives taxpayers’ money working in the BBC should be endorsing a campaign that is widely understood to promote Jew hate.”

Broadcaster Eamonn Holmes discussed the anti-Israel tweet during his breakfast show on GB News yesterday: “I’m not sure why he feels the need to keep doing things like this…It’s almost as if he’s goading the BBC into sacking him.”

Lee Anderson, the Tory deputy chairman, said: “Licence fee payers are fed up of footing the bill for Lineker’s musings on international politics.

“It’s about time BBC bosses decided whether Gary’s right-on rubbish is in keeping with their social media rulebook.”

Jonathan Gullis, the Tory MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, said: “Hamas harms the people they claim to represent, stealing aid off the people of Gaza, using innocent Gazans as human shields and throwing LGBT+ people off buildings. All this whilst their leaders live a life of luxury in Qatar.

“We wait for international diplomat and foreign policy expert, Gary Lineker, to call this out soon.”

In December 2023, Samir Shah, the BBC’s new chairman, said Lineker appeared to breach social media guidelines when he used X to apparently mock Tory MPs after signing an open letter criticising the Government’s Rwanda policy.

The BBC declined to comment but a spokesman said: “We aren’t giving a statement. However, for background we understand Gary retweeted this post because he thought it was about football news and wasn’t taking a position. He has since deleted the tweet.”