Pointless and House of Games presenter Richard Osman, 52, has blasted the “pathetic” decision, which was announced this afternoon in a statement from the BBC. BBC Sport host Gary Lineker has faced intense scrutiny this week after he criticised the government’s new asylum policy.
The BBC has now said it considered the former striker’s “recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines”.
In a statement, the broadcaster added that due to its impartiality rules, Gary should “keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies”.
The BBC confirmed bosses have had “extensive discussions with Gary and team in recent days” and “has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media”.
However, fellow BBC employee Richard has defended Gary by slamming the move in a Twitter post.
He retweeted the news and wrote in view of his 1.2 million followers: “This is pathetic for so many reasons.”
Fans took to the comments section of Richard’s post to share their thoughts.
One person warned: “Careful Richard. They’ll take house of games off the telly if you question them.”
Another quipped: “Careful Richard, you aren’t permitted to have an opinion – apparently.”
A third fan queried: “On the flipside, if I tweeted something that painted my employer in a bad light, I’d be suspended/fired… oh wait, but the BBC is not the UK government, right? Right?!!”
A fourth added: “It is so sad that the BBC is caving in to the bigots who have clearly been out to get him. I’m sure that if he had expressed support for the government’s stance that absolutely nothing would have happened about him expressing an opinion.”
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