Is Gary Lineker taunting BBC with new ‘free speech’ Twitter profile picture?

Match of the Day presenter highlights quote about free speech inscribed on BBC headquarters

Gary Lineker appears to be taunting the BBC with a new Twitter profile picture promoting free speech just days after his extraordinary row with bosses over impartiality.

The BBC’s weekend football programming effectively collapsed after the star presenter was suspended from Match of the Day on Friday over his criticism of government policy on asylum-seekers, prompting pundits, presenters and commentators to withdraw in solidarity.

Lineker was reinstated on Monday and made no apology for his tweet comparing the government’s language to 1930s Germany – and immediately tweeting again about the plight of refugees as he announced his return.

Gary Lineker changed his profile picture to include a George Orwell quote on free speech (Twitter)

The corporation’s director-general Tim Davie apologised for the disruption caused by the row and said he recognised “the potential confusion caused by the grey areas of the BBC’s social media guidance”.

He said the presenter “will abide by the editorial guidelines” until an independent review of the BBC’s social media policy is complete.

But just a day after his reinstatement, Lineker appears to have changed his Twitter profile picture in order to underline his position further, opting for a photograph of himself standing next to the Orwell inscription outside the BBC headquarters.

It reads: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

The quote is emblazoned on the outer wall of Broadcasting House next to a statue of the English author and journalist, who worked on propaganda for the BBC during the Second World War.

The former England football star also retweeted a Commons speech given by former prime minister Theresa May on Monday, in which she criticised Rishi Sunak’s small boats crackdown and warned that the new asylum bill “shuts the door” on genuine victims of modern slavery.

The George Orwell statue and quote was adorned with an Extinction Rebellion flag during the group’s mass protests in October 2019 (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

While Lineker, a freelancer, is not bound by the same impartiality rules as staff journalists, BBC guidance states that its high-profile stars are expected “to avoid taking sides on party-political issues”.

Lineker has hosted Match of the Day since 1999 and earned roughly £1.35m in 2020-21, making him the BBC’s highest-paid star.

The row was sparked after he described a Home Office video of Suella Braverman introducing the government’s new bill – which would ban people who arrive in Britain in small boats from ever claiming asylum in the UK – as “beyond awful”.

“There is no huge influx,” Lineker wrote on Twitter. “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, and I’m out of order?”

His remarks came as the home secretary – who has previously warned of “an invasion” on the south coast – was heavily criticised over her “inflammatory” claim in parliament that 100 million potential refugees “are coming here” – despite just 89,000 people making asylum claims last year.

Lineker’s subsequent suspension raised fresh questions over the corporation’s own impartiality, with Blair-era sports secretary Chris Smith among those accusing BBC bosses of “kowtowing to instructions from Tory MPs, government ministers and the right-wing press”.

The row also reignited calls for BBC chair Richard Sharp to resign over his role in facilitating an £800,000 role for Boris Johnson while the latter was in No 10.

Furious Tory MPs expressed outrage at the broadcaster’s U-turn, with Craig Mackinlay telling The Independent: “The BBC climbdown with an apology and carte blanche to do as he pleases on social media is remarkable.”

And former BBC news executive Sir Craig Oliver – a former No 10 communications chief under David Cameron – also described it as a “capitulation”, saying: “I think what’s happened here is Gary Lineker 1 – BBC credibility 0.”

“The reality is the BBC today has announced it will have a review of its social media guidelines,” he said. “In fact, it needs a review of how it handles crisis like these.”

Richard Ayre, the former controller of BBC editorial policy, said the review of its social media guidelines was “going to be a nightmare”, telling the BBC: “Whatever emerges will be unsatisfactory to a significant number of people. It’s not remotely a problem solved. It’s a problem shelved for the time being.”