Taking Lineker off air was the right decision – ex-BBC boss

THE former director of the BBC World Service has said the corporation was right to take Gary Lineker off air over his anti-Tory tweets, saying he had broken guidelines.

Jamie Angus, who left the role last year, said it was very difficult for journalists at the BBC to see one of its highest-paid stars ‘driving a coach and horses’ through the impartiality standards they have to stick to.

He added that he was not convinced the corporation’s relationship with the Match of the Day host was going to ‘survive’.

Speaking to Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch podcast, Mr Angus said the fact editorial guidelines were ‘now going to have to be redrawn again’ was ‘damaging’.

He added: ‘I, perhaps unfashionably, take the view that Tim was right to ask Gary Lineker to come off air.

‘Tim... set a series of guidelines for people who aren’t news employees. And it seemed to me... that what Gary Lineker tweeted about the political discussion around refugees in the UK broke those guidelines.

‘And I think that a lot of BBC staff, particularly in BBC News, probably felt the same.’

He said journalists are asked to ‘give up a huge amount of their personal freedom’ in the name of impartiality.

He added: ‘If you look at some of the things [Lineker has] tweeted even since this row – they seem pretty close to the line, if not over the line to me, and I’m not quite sure how this is going to get resolved in the longer term.

‘It may be that if Gary feels that in the longer term his freedom to tweet what he likes... is the most important thing to him, that may not be compatible with continuing to work for the BBC.’