Gary Lineker responds to Tory MP’s ‘dangerously provocative’ comment and retweets criticism of government asylum policy

All eyes have since been on Gary Lineker’s Twitter account match of the day The host struck a deal with BBC management to go back to work this weekend and they didn’t disappoint.

In numerous tweets about football, Lineker criticized a Conservative MP for “outrageous and dangerously provocative” allegations made against him and retweeted a video of former prime minister Theresa May’s criticism of the government’s proposed immigration bill. Scroll down for both.

Lineker reacted angrily to Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis, who in an interview with Channel 4 News claimed the former England footballer had called the people of the north of England “racist bigots and Nazis”.

The clip and a screenshot were shared widely on Twitter, with Lineker quoting one of those screenshots saying: “No he hasn’t and he never would. It’s outrageous and dangerously provocative.”

Lineker was pulled by the BBC at the weekend for comparing the government’s language on its asylum policy to Nazi Germany, and at no point accused British citizens of behaving like “racist fanatics and Nazis”.

He retweeted May’s anti-policy outburst yesterday – another clip from Channel 4 News – in which she used a parliamentary debate to say that immigrants would have “the door shut in Britain” if the government made any proposals. May, a former home secretary, also described the policy as a “broad dismissal” of those being prosecuted.

Lineker’s retweet will raise some eyebrows as he has agreed to stick to the BBC’s guidelines for social media moderators in the meantime, before the BBC updates those guidelines in the coming weeks, with the terms of an independent review to be detailed soon. .

While the retweet of May’s criticism is much more subtle than the “Nazi Germany” tweet, his Twitter timeline is still under scrutiny pending review. Many will have noticed that he changed his Twitter image to stand in front of a wall with the caption: “If freedom means anything, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.”

May spoke in the Houses of Parliament shortly after the opposition party’s culture secretary, Lucy Powell, compared the BBC’s suspension of Lineker to “something from Putin’s Russia”.

In an effort to raise awareness of the matter, Conservative culture secretary Julia Lopez Powell chastised her language and said the BBC should resolve the Lineker problem internally. After initially taking offense at Lineker’s “Nazi Germany” tweet, reports suggest the Conservatives are now keen to let the BBC handle the situation, which will push criticism of asylum policy out of the news.

Lineker will present match of the day Business as usual on Saturday and the BBC is hoping to avoid further disruption after a weekend in which presenters, pundits and commentators on a host of sports programs shut down tools.

Separately, BBC local news journalists are on strike today – the day of the Chancellor’s first Budget – over plans to cut 50 roles and merge local programmes.

With the Fiona Bruce and the BBC singers scandal, it’s not an easy time to be the BBC’s top brass band.