Piers Morgan is furious at BBC’s ‘woefully lacking in character’ decision to suspend Gary Lineker

Piers Morgan has joined the chorus of critics against the BBC’s decision to suspend Gary Lineker after he compared the British government’s rhetoric to Nazi Germany.

Morgan said the BBC was “woefully lacking in character” for demanding that Lineker resign from his post. Match of the day Hosting obligations for violating Twitter’s impartiality rules.

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Morgan expressed his support for his friend, saying:

Others also expressed their solidarity. Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, the former English strikers and close colleagues of Lineker, declared that they would boycott Match of the day.

Responding to Wright, Jeremy Clarkson said: “Well done, mate.”

Left-wing politicians sharply attacked the BBC, including Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister.

Lineker was suspended for criticising the government’s “beyond horrific” plans to prevent small boats carrying asylum seekers from reaching the British coast.

In a tweet on Tuesday, he added: “We are taking in far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is simply an immeasurably cruel policy targeting the most vulnerable, in language not unlike that used in Germany in the 1930s.”

The BBC said Lineker would be relegated to the bench while it considered how the presenter could express his views on social media in a way that was consistent with the broadcaster’s duty of impartiality.

The BBC said: “The BBC has had extensive discussions with Gary and his team over the last few days. We have said that we consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines.

“The BBC has decided that he will step away from presenting Match of the Day until we have an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.

“When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second to none. We never said Gary should be free-form or not allowed to have an opinion on issues he cares about, but we did say he should stay away from party politics or political controversy.”

Lineker has not commented yet.

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