Gary Lineker has said he regrets that a tweet he posted led to a fallout with the BBC, when it should have been a row between the broadcaster and the Daily Mail. The Match of the Day presenter was taken off air by the BBC in March 2023 after writing on X that the language used by the government to launch a policy on small boat crossings was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”. Speaking at the Hay festival in Powys, the former England footballer suggested the real problem had been a critical front page headline from the Daily Mail, which was a “distortion” of his original comment.
“The one thing I do regret is that it was a fallout between me and the BBC and it should have been a fallout between the BBC and the Daily Mail ,” he said. “I think it is a great shame what happened, because it pretty much pitched me against the BBC , and I love the BBC. I don’t think we shout our corner enough, we get a little too defensive, particularly with worrying about what’s in the Daily Mail.
They’ve got a raison d’etre and they wanted a story on the BBC. “I think the BBC needs to not worry as much about the Daily Mail and worry about what the people who love the BBC care about.” Lineker recalled that after posting the tweet he had gone to bed, switched his phone off, and woken up to hundreds of WhatsApp messages, initially fearing for his family.
When he found out what had happened, he thought: “Phew, that’s all it is.” Leaving his home later, .
