Sky Sports reporter lays bare the hypocritical treatment of Lineker in two brutally honest minutes

A Sky Sports reporter has brilliantly detailed why the BBC suspending Gary Lineker for breaching impartiality guidelines can be seen as hypocritical.

Kaveh Solhekol detailed instances in which other presenters have shown themselves to hold political opinions, after the sports pundit posted tweets this week criticising Rishi Sunak’s new asylum policy and likened the language used by ministers about asylum seekers to “that used by Germany in the 30s”.

Solhekol started off by questioning why Andrew Neil expresses "political opinions on Twitter" without backlash.

He also questioned Robbie Gibb's role in the corporation, given he used to work in communications for Theresa May, and said Alan Sugar and Jeremy Clarkson also express political opinions on Twitter and Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, used to be the deputy chairman of the Hammersmith & Fulham Conservative Party.

"Why is all this allowed, yet Gary Lineker is not allowed to make a fairly innocuous comment which many many people would agree with about a policy that has been condemned by the United Nations as well as many human rights groups?" he asked.

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He added that Lineker had been allowed to criticise the human rights record in Qatar on the BBC.

"Why is he not allowed to question the human rights record of the country he lives in?" he added.

Match of the Day will be broadcast without presenters, pundits or its usual commentators this weekend, after Lineker's fellow pundits including Alan Shearer and Steve Wilson said they would not appear on it, in solidarity to Lineker.

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