Campbell ‘tainted’ by his business ties with presenter
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL’S commercial relationship with Gary Lineker “taints” his attack on the BBC for suspending the presenter, say critics.
It came as the former Labour spin doctor called on Richard Sharp, the BBC chairman, to leave after the corporation forced Lineker to step back from Match of the Day.
Mr Campbell has been vocal in his backing of Lineker, supporting the growing boycott by fellow presenters of the BBC’s football coverage and declaring “never be a bystander”.
Yesterday he targeted the BBC’s chairman, who was found by a crossparty committee of MPs to have made “significant errors of judgement” in failing to disclose his role in a loan to Boris Johnson. Mr Campbell tweeted: “The people leaving the building should be Richard Sharp and ‘Sir’ (ludicrous) Robbie Gibb [BBC board member and former Downing Street director of communications] not Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright.”
But critics have claimed that he could be compromised by his relationship with Lineker’s lucrative podcast production company Goalhanger, which hosts The Rest is Politics podcast, presented by Mr Campbell and former Conservative minister Rory Stewart.
The close working relationship between Mr Campbell and Lineker has angered those who say it undermines any pretence that Tony Blair’s former director of communications can be a dispassionate commentator. Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP for Thanet, said: “There is a commercial relationship and this, of course, taints whatever Campbell says about the actions of the BBC. He is not a disinterested observer.
“Also, he cannot say that Richard Sharp is tainted because of his controversy while at the same time claiming that Lineker is not tainted by his tweets. Either both are or neither of them are.”
Mr Campbell dismissed the criticism during an on-air exchange with BBC presenter Ben Brown on Friday.
When his “business links” with Mr Lineker were pointed out, he replied that it was “unbelievable” that the fact had to be stated, adding: “Does it mean, for example, that every BBC bulletin now should begin with the words ‘We should point out to viewers that the BBC is chaired by a man who makes massive donations to the Conservative Party’?”
Richard Ayre, the former controller of editorial policy at the BBC, dismissed the idea of double standards in the treatment of Lineker and Mr Sharp, saying that the broadcaster does not appoint and “can’t sack” its own chairman.