A history of Gary Lineker’s most controversial posts – from Rwanda and Brexit to Gaza
Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid on-air presenter, is to leave the corporation in a matter of days.
The Match Of The Day host will step away from the broadcaster at the end of this month, with his last appearance expected on 25 May, the last day of the Premier League season.
His exit comes after he “apologised unreservedly” for sharing a social media post that featured a rat – used in Nazi propaganda to dehumanise Jewish people – and said he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic”.
It was the latest controversial post by the 64-year-old, who has found himself at the centre of several rows over his social media usage, most of which involve him sharing his political views, which go against the BBC’s rules on impartiality.
In a statement on Monday, Lineker said: “I care deeply about the game, and about the work I’ve done with the BBC over many years. As I’ve said, I would never consciously repost anything antisemitic – it goes against everything I stand for.
“However, I recognise the error and upset that I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am. Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action.”
Here is a round-up of the pundit’s most contentious comments as he prepares to leave the BBC.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Gary Lineker to leave BBC immediately
Gaza documentary
Although not via social media, earlier this year, Lineker was one of 500 media personalities who condemned the BBC for pulling the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who had worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
In an open letter addressed to BBC director general Tim Davie, chairman Samir Shah and outgoing chief content officer Charlotte Moore, Lineker joined hundreds of TV and film professionals and journalists who called the decision to remove the documentary “politically motivated censorship”.
The presenter later said the BBC had “capitulated”, adding that he did not see Abdullah as an issue, and maintaining that the corporation should not have admitted to “a number of serious failings in their commissioning and editorial processes”.
The BBC admitted the documentary’s failings were “a dagger to the heart” of the corporation’s impartiality.
Tory migrant policy
In March 2023, Lineker called a Conservative government policy on migration “immeasurably cruel” and compared the language around it to 1930s Germany.
Hitting out at a video of former home secretary Suella Braverman, where she unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill and claimed the UK was being “overwhelmed” by migrants, Lineker wrote on social media: “There is no huge influx.
“We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries.
“This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s.”
His comments sent politicians, pundits and social media platform X into a spin.
As a result, Lineker was removed from his duties as Match Of The Day presenter after claims he had breached their impartiality guidelines.
He later returned to the presenting role after the row prompted a boycott by his fellow football pundits and commentators, hitting TV and radio coverage across the BBC.
Lineker has been consistently vocal on the issue of migration. In 2020 the former England footballer welcomed refugee Rasheed Baluch into his Surrey home.
Mr Baluch, who was from Pakistan, stayed with the presenter for weeks, and spoke out in the pundit’s defence in 2023, describing him as a “very sympathetic, caring and human loving man”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
From March 2023: Gary Lineker stands by social media post
‘4 chaps Shapps’
Criticising former defence secretary Grant Shapps in December 2023, Lineker posted photos of the politician – who lost his seat in last year’s general election – along with different names he has been accused of using in the past.
It was in response to Mr Shapps defending the government’s Rwanda scheme. The politician said Lineker should stick to football and stop “meddling” in other matters.
Lineker replied on social media, saying: “A tad rich coming from someone who can’t even stick to one name. 4 chaps Shapps.”
Chair of the BBC Mr Shah said at the time the post breached the corporation’s guidelines.
Brexit and Tories
Lineker was a vocal opponent of Brexit and in 2018 backed the campaign for another EU referendum, saying Brexit felt like it was “going very wrong indeed”.
At the time, a BBC source told Sky News that Lineker’s position as a freelance broadcaster, and a presenter who does not front news or politics programmes, meant he was clear of the corporation’s rules on impartiality.
As well as voicing his Brexit opinions, Lineker bemoaned “the absolute state of our politics”, saying “imagine how hopeless you’d have to be to still be behind the Tory party in the polls”.
BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew hit back, criticising Lineker for speaking out on politics.
He posted on X: “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. Thanks.”
Lineker made a barbed reply: “Jonathan, I’m the face of my own Twitter account. I’ll continue to tweet what I like and if folk disagree with me then so be it.”
Russian donors
In February 2022, Lineker tweeted about the Conservative Party taking money from “Russian donors”.
Retweeting a story about the then foreign secretary Liz Truss urging football teams to boycott the Champions League final in Russia, he added: “And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors?”
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) upheld a complaint and said Lineker’s post “did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality”.
The ECU said Lineker was “one of the BBC’s highest profile stars” and said while not being required to uphold the same high standards of impartiality as its journalists, he had an “additional responsibility” because of his profile.
“We expect these individuals to avoid taking sides on party political issues or political controversies and to take care when addressing public policy matters,” the ruling said.
Row over sewage
A senior BBC journalist questioned Lineker’s commitment to the BBC’s impartiality rules after the presenter posted on social media about sewage in August 2022.
At the time, Lineker wrote on social media: “As a politician how could you ever, under any circumstances, bring yourself to vote for pumping sewage into our seas? Unfathomable!”
BBC journalist Neil Henderson asked Lineker whether he had a contract allowing him to breach BBC impartiality, writing: “The BBC lives or dies by its impartiality. If you can’t abide it, get off it.”
He subsequently apologised to the former footballer and deleted the tweets. Under the BBC’s social media rules, criticising colleagues is off-limits.
Read more:
Who are Match Of The Day’s new presenters?
Qatar World Cup
Lineker opened the BBC’s coverage of the 2022 Qatar World Cup with a scathing critique of the host country’s record on human rights and treatment of migrant workers.
The segment analysed the decision to award the tournament to Qatar amid corruption allegations and brought in pundits to discuss workers’ rights and discrimination against LGBT people.
Former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis – who was once found to have breached impartiality guidelines herself – compared that incident to the response to his other social media posts around the same time.
She said: “Curious that Gary Lineker was free to raise questions about Qatar’s human rights record – with the blessing of the BBC – over the World Cup, but cannot raise questions of human rights in this country if it involves criticism of government policy…”
In advance of the tournament, Lineker criticised then foreign secretary James Cleverly after he suggested LGBT football fans should be “respectful” of Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal, if they visited for the World Cup.
Responding to the comments, Lineker said: “Whatever you do, don’t do anything gay. Is that the message?”
A pitch invader with a rainbow flag during a Qatar World Cup match. Pic: AP
The time he didn’t speak out
Reflecting on his comments about the Qatar World Cup, Lineker said he and the BBC should have spoken out more during the World Cup in Russia in 2018.
At the time there were calls for Russia to be stripped of the World Cup or boycotted in 2014 after it annexed Crimea and was blamed by the West for supplying arms to pro-Russian separatists suspected of shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.
“I think we were all going how great it was, and this and that and the other, and that’s how sportwashing works,” Lineker said during a BBC Radio 4 interview.
“We’ve seen what Putin’s done subsequently, but he’d done it before.
“I think looking back now in hindsight, I think we should probably have spoken out more.”
Entertainment
Reginald D Hunter: Summons against comic by Campaign Against Antisemitism quashed for seeking to have him ‘cancelled’
A judge has quashed a summons against comedian Reginald D Hunter, brought privately by Campaign Against Antisemitism, ruling it “abusive” and intended to get the comedian “cancelled”.
The 56-year-old US comic had been accused of three counts of sending an offensive communication on three different occasions – 24 August, 10 September and 11 September last year – to Heidi Bachram on X.
The summons was quashed at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday by District Judge Michael Snow following an application by the defence.
Judge Snow ruled that the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) charity’s motive in seeking to prosecute Hunter was “to have him cancelled” and that the prosecution was “abusive”.
Bought as a private prosecution, rather than by the state, the judge said the charity was seeking to use the criminal justice system “for improper reasons”.
The CAA describes itself as a volunteer-led charity, “dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law”.
In his ruling, Judge Snow said: “The CAA have demonstrated by the misleading and partial way in which it summarised its application and its wilful, repeated, failure to meet its disclosure obligations, that its true and sole motive in seeking to prosecute Reginald Hunter is to have him cancelled.
“I have no doubt that the prosecution is abusive.
“My view of the conduct of the CAA is consistent with them as an organisation which is not ‘playing it straight’ but is seeking to use the criminal justice system, in this case for improper reasons.”
Hunter at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this year.Pic: PA
‘Inadequate’ summary and failure to flag compliance probe
Judge Snow said the summary of Ms Bachram’s tweeting in the application case summary was “wholly inadequate”.
He added: “It did not reveal the extent of her tweets directed against Reginald Hunter in the period immediately preceding the complaints (her tweets were sent between 15 August and 11 September 2024).
“The summary misled me into believing that his comments were addressed to her involvement with the Jewish faith as opposed to his response to attempts that were being made to have him ‘cancelled’.”
The judge said the CAA had failed to inform him of a compliance investigation by the Charity Commission into the CAA in November 2024.
CAA accused of ‘weaponising’ the court
Hunter’s lawyer Rebecca Chalkley KC told the hearing on Tuesday that “very little was disclosed” to the judge and the “lack of candour” meant the summons should be quashed.
Ms Chalkley said: “It calls into question the whole juridical process as judges before issuing summonses need to have everything in front of them.”
The lawyer told the judge: “You were led to believe in papers in front of you that the CAA was no more than a charity, that it had no history – as since demonstrated as a vexatious litigant – no complaints, no criticism in Parliament, no investigations by the Charity Commission.”
The lawyer added: “The CAA are weaponising and using the courts for their own political agenda and not just in this case.”
The CAA’s prosecutor Donal Lawler told the hearing that the charity had complied with its duty of candour.
Hunter regularly tours the UK and has appeared on comedy panel shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You and 8 Out Of 10 Cats.
A crowdfunding campaign he launched to help him cover his legal fees raised over £58,000 in less than six months.
Chris Rea, known for hits including Driving Home For Christmas and The Road To Hell, has died after a short illness, according to a family spokesperson.
A statement on behalf of his wife and two children stated: “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Chris.
“He passed away peacefully in hospital earlier today following a short illness, surrounded by his family.”
Chris Rea arrives at the Odeon Leicester Square for the opening of the London Film Festival in 1996. Pic: PA
The Middlesbrough-born musician was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had his pancreas removed in 2001, and in 2016 he suffered a stroke.
Follow our blog for the latest reactions to Chris Rea’s death
Rea found fame in the late seventies and eighties with hits such as Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Let’s Dance and The Road To Hell.
Known for his gravelly voice and latterly for his slide guitar playing, he was nominated for a slew of top awards, including Brit Awards, at the height of his success and sold millions of records.
File pic: Glenn Ashley/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Rea’s debut album, titled Whatever Happened To Benny Santini?, a reference to the stage name his record label wanted him to adopt, was released in 1978.
His track Fool (If You Think It’s Over), from the album, went on to be nominated for a Grammy.
He did not find such success again for a few years, but by the time his eighth album On The Beach was released, he was a star in the UK and around Europe, with sporadic hits in the US.
When Road To Hell was released in 1989, he became one of the biggest solo stars in the UK. Two of his studio albums – The Road To Hell (1989) and Auberge (1991) – went to number one in the country.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump’s new Greenland envoy intends to make territory “a part of the US”
Puppy farming and trail hunting to be banned
His famous song Driving Home For Christmas, first released in 1986, features in this year’s M&S Food Christmas advert – which sees comedian Dawn French sing along to the single in her car.
Speaking about the song during the 2020 Mortimer And Whitehouse Gone Fishing Christmas special, he told comedian Bob Mortimer: “I was on the dole when I wrote that.
Chris Rea arrives at the Mojo Awards in 2009. Pic: PA
“My manager had just left me. I’d just been banned from driving, right. My now wife, Joan, she had to drive down to London, picked me up in the Mini, and take me home, and that’s when I wrote it.”
The singer returned to his blues roots after a string of health problems.
“I wasn’t frightened of dying,” he once said in an interview.
“It did look like the end, but what got me through was the thought of leaving a record that my two teenage daughters could say, ‘That’s what Papa did – not the pop stuff, but the blues music. That’s what he was about’.”
Chris Rea arrives at the Odeon Leicester Square for the opening of the London Film Festival in 1996. Pic: PA
Entertainment
Stars and fans including Liam Gallagher, Paul Weller and David Beckham gather for Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield’s funeral
Stars including Liam Gallagher, David Beckham and Paul Weller have gathered to pay tribute to The Stone Roses star Gary “Mani” Mounfield.
The Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist died last month at the age of 63.
The coffin is carried from the ceremony by Alan Wren (L), Liam Gallagher (R) and John Squire (2nd R). Pic: PA
Pic: PA
His death came two years after that of his wife, Imelda Mounfield, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2020. The couple welcomed twin boys in 2012.
He had been due to travel the UK later this year for an in-conversation tour sharing memories of his rock experiences.
Liveblog: Famous faces say final goodbye to Stone Roses bass player
The funeral, which was held at Manchester Cathedral, drew hundreds of fans, including a guard of scooter riders with black bands and a photo of Mani on their bikes.
Arriving at the service, The Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown said Mani was “a brother to me”, calling him a “beautiful human being”.
Some of the biggest names of British 1990s music were at the ceremony, including Oasis star Liam Gallagher, singer-songwriter Paul Weller, Primal Scream frontman Bobbie Gillespie and Bez, from the Happy Mondays.
Tim Burgess, lead singer of The Charlatans, Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, Ian McCulloch of Echo & The Bunnymen, Mike Joyce, drummer from The Smiths, Inspiral Carpets keyboardist Clint Boon, and former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook also came to pay tribute.
Liam Gallagher. Pic: PA
David Beckham. Pic: PA
Former Manchester United players David Beckham and Gary Neville were also among hundreds of mourners arriving for the service.
Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay were also in attendance.
Paul Weller. Pic: PA
Bez from the Happy Mondays. Pic: PA
Hundreds more fans gathered outside the cathedral and applauded as the cortege arrived, and as I Wanna Be Adored – one of The Stone Roses’ biggest hits – blared from the speakers.
The coffin, which was decorated with artwork from the cover of The Stone Roses – the band’s self-titled debut album – had travelled around eight miles from Heaton Moor in Stockport to the cathedral.
Gallagher, along with The Stone Roses drummer Alan Wren – also known as Reni – and bandmate John Squire carried the coffin from the ceremony after the service.
Mani was part of the Stone Roses’ classic line-up alongside Brown, Squire and Wren.
Pausing briefly as he went into church, Brown said he was there to celebrate “what a beautiful human being that he was”.
Asked what his bandmate meant to him, the singer said: “Everything. He’s a brother to me.”
Guy Garvey, from Elbow, arriving for the funeral service of former The Stone Roses and Primal Scream bass player Gary Mounfield, who was known as Mani
Actress Sally Lindsay. Pic: PA
Forming in 1983, Mani was part of The Stone Roses until they split in 1996, playing on both the eponymous debut album, released in 1989, and their 1995 follow-up, Second Coming.
The “Madchester” band was known for blending indie with acid house, psychedelia and pop.
Mani went on to play with Scottish band Primal Scream for 15 years, leaving in 2011 to rejoin the reuniting Roses.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024