‘Tory Russian donor’ jibe by Lineker falls foul of BBC
GARY Lineker has been found to have broken the BBC’s impartiality rules with an anti-Tory tweet.
The Match of the Day host singled out the Conservatives over having ‘Russian donors’ in a post online in February.
It comes after years of controversy over the politically charged social media posts written by Lineker, the BBC’s top-paid star, who last year earned in the region of £1.35million.
Sources last night said they believed it was the first time he had been officially found to have broken rules on impartiality. The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) said it had upheld a complaint over the post as it ‘did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality’.
Lineker posted the message on Twitter in response to then-foreign
‘Must avoid taking sides’
secretary Liz Truss’s calls for English teams to boycott the Champions League final in Russia. He wrote: ‘And her party will hand back their donations from Russian donors?’
The ECU pointed to the fact that Lineker was ‘one of the BBC’s highest profile stars’ and, while he was not involved in journalism, people with his profile had an ‘additional responsibility’.
The corporation’s guidance says of these people: ‘We expect these individuals to avoid taking sides on party political issues or political controversies and to take care when addressing public policy matters’.
Last night the move was being interpreted as a toughened stance from the BBC towards its star, who has 8.1million Twitter followers.
The ECU said the former England striker had pointed out that his tweet was prompted by an article on football, and it was intended as a comment on the sport.
But the ECU judged that Lineker’s tweet aimed ‘to highlight a perceived inconsistency in the Conservative Party’s approach at a time when relations between the UK and Russia were the subject of significant public debate’.
and Martin Kemp’s brief careers as TV chatshow hosts is at an end — there will be no more episodes of ITV’s Weekend Best.
‘We were asked to do more but couldn’t make the dates work,’ explains Roman, who co-hosted Sunday Best and later Weekend Best with his former Spandau
Ballet pop star father. ‘It’s a shame because we really enjoyed doing it.’ The series, featuring games and celebrity interviews, was a family affair. Martin’s daughter Harley Moon wrote the signature tune and both she and her mother Shirlie — once part of the pop duo Pepsi & Shirlie — were guests.