New BBC chair criticises Gary Lineker's social media posts about ...

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Social media posts by Gary Lineker, the presenter of the BBC’s most popular sports programme, appears to have broken the corporation’s guidelines, its incoming chair Samir Shah told MPs on Wednesday.

He said a row between the presenter of Match of the Day and several Tory MPs, including defence secretary Grant Shapps, was not “very helpful either for Gary Lineker or the BBC or the cause he supports because it becomes a story about Gary Lineker and the BBC”.

Shah made the comments to the Culture, Media and Sport committee ahead of confirmation as BBC chair, after he was appointed last week by the government to take over as the first permanent head of the corporation’s board since predecessor Richard Sharp’s resignation in April.

Shah insisted that he was independent of the Conservative government despite his links with the ruling party. The veteran TV executive, who has previously worked at the BBC, said that he was encouraged to apply for the job by Andrew Neil, the TV presenter and chair of Spectator magazine.

Shah said his new role was “a tough job, but it should be” acknowledging how the BBC has come under increasing pressure in recent years from politicians over perceived bias.

He said that his focus would be on helping the BBC negotiate charter renewal in 2027, which he described as “one that keeps the BBC surviving and doing the best it can”.

But he was almost immediately tested for his views by the committee on a range of controversies involving the BBC, including the latest spat with Lineker, who has used his social media profile regularly to criticise government policy.

Earlier this year, the BBC was forced to redesign its guidelines on social media use after the former England footballer compared UK government rhetoric on immigration with that used in 1930s Germany. Shah told MPs the guidelines might need to be reviewed again in the wake of the latest spat.

The latest dispute erupted after Lineker signed a letter opposing the government’s Rwanda migration bill. The move was criticised by a number of Tory MPs and led to a series of mocking exchanges on X.

Shah said that it was not “helpful” that Lineker had signed the letter about Rwanda, but that this did not breach the corporations’ guidelines.

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However, Shah added that the “more recent tweets in which he identified two politicians does, on the face of it, seem to breach those guidelines. I imagine the BBC is looking into it and considering its response.” Lineker has previously insisted that his posts on X met the BBC’s guidelines.

Shah was also questioned about his views on the argument between parts of the Conservative government and the BBC over its refusal to change its editorial code to refer to Hamas as a terrorist group. This is the official position of the UK government, which led to calls by MPs and ministers for the BBC to follow suit. 

Shah said that this case should be included as part of a wider review of the BBC’s editorial guidelines expected next year.