Gary Lineker has admitted he had an emotional reaction to his BBC Sports co-stars walk out after he was temporarily suspended from the broadcaster.
The Match Of The Day host was asked to “step back” from the show – before later being reinstated – amid an impartiality row after he posted a tweet criticising a new government migrant policy.
Gary’s Match Of The Day co-stars Ian Wright and Alan Shearer announced they would not appear on the Saturday night highlights show out of solidarity to him, which prompted other presenters like Football Focus’ Alex Scott to follow suit.
Appearing on The Rest Is Politics podcast spin-off show Leading, Gary admitted seeing his co-stars support him was emotional.
“I must admit, I had a tear in my eye… It just moved me, it was beautiful,” he said.
“When it first happened… it’s one thing saying that in a moment, but then actually to carry that through, they didn’t need to do that.”
When asked about the fallout from his tweet, Gary said he was still “bewildered” by the “disproportionate” response.
He also claimed that the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, was aware that he was going to be actively speaking about refugees and the environment after new social media guidelines were introduced at the broadcaster in 2020.
Gary said: “We had a discussion, and I said to Tim there are two things I’ll continue to talk up on, I will not back down, and he agreed, one of them was about the refugee crisis and the other was about climate change.”
He said “obviously” theses issues include political ideas as he asked people to have empathy for refugees fleeing persecution.
Gary added that he “loves the BBC” and it was “silly” the broadcaster had the response it did.
The presenter returned to air last weekend after the row regarding the his response on Twitter to a Home Office video – in which home secretary Suella Braverman unveiled the government’s plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats – saying the language used was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s”.
He faced criticism from members of the Tory party, including the home secretary, while a spokesperson for Rishi Sunak also said: “It’s obviously disappointing to see someone whose salary is funded by hard-working British (licence-fee) payers using that kind of rhetoric and seemingly dismissing their legitimate concerns that they have about small boats crossings and illegal migration.”
After a backlash to the BBC’s decision to make Gary step back from Match Of The Day, Davie said there would be an independent review of the corporation’s social media guidance in light of the controversy and how it applies to freelancers like Gary.
The Rest Is Politics: Leading podcast is available to stream now.