23 Favorite Things People Are Saying About Gary Lineker Right Now

We await the red card for the BBC’s Gary Lineker for raising legitimate concerns about the government’s new immigration policy.

Lineker, you will recall, said this on Twitter…

Gosh, this is beyond awful.

— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023

There is not a large influx. We take in far fewer refugees than other large European countries. This is just immeasurably cruel policy aimed at the most vulnerable in language not dissimilar to that of Germany in the 30’s and I’m out of order?

— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023

… leading to endless angry outrage from the usual (and achingly familiar) suspects. Here’s the front page of Thursday’s Daily Mail (that’s not Lineker, that’s the Princess of Wales)

Support came from unlikely sources.

Bad news @GaryLineker – I am your defense. 👇👇

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 8, 2023

I’m dooooomed 😂

— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2023

And Lineker, as you’d expect, wasn’t there to flip.

I’ve never had love and support like this morning in my life (aside from England’s World Cup goals maybe). I want to thank each and every one of you. That means a lot. I will keep trying to stand up for these poor souls who have no voice. Cheers everyone. 👊🏻

— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2023

The whole thing makes for endless comments on Twitter today, and we’ve read them all – well, quite a few of them, so you don’t have to, and here are our favorites.

1.

Number one on BBC News at Ten is Gary Lineker’s tweet. Not the Illegal Migration Act, Gary Lineker’s take on it. This is totally, totally fucking crazy.

— Tom Peck (@tompeck) March 8, 2023

2.

The idea that pleases @GaryLineker should just sit by and be silenced while bad people do terrible things, far worse things begin.

— Otto English (@Otto_English) March 8, 2023

3.

So…

It’s not okay that Gary Lineker is actively anti-government

But it’s okay if the BBC chairman and chief executive are actively pro-government

Because as far as I know, our royalties pay the wages of all these people…

— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) March 8, 2023

4.

Andrew Neil fronted the BBC’s political reporting for many years and also regularly shared his own (far right) views on Twitter. It never once made the front pages of newspapers or topped BBC news programmes

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) March 9, 2023

5.

The BBC is not a place for people with strong political views. Unless they are the chairman, the general manager or a member of the board.

— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) March 8, 2023

6.

It is important to note how close it is to complete the stranglehold of Brexit law on the UK media now. How else could a *sports broadcaster* with a large Twitter following get them all clutching their pearls and cackling like chickens? It’s not dissent they’re afraid of, it’s the truth.

— James O’Brien (@mrjamesob) March 9, 2023

7.

That we might get a Sir Stanley Johnson instead of a Sir Gary Lineker tells you all you need to know.

— Danny Wallace (@dannywallace) March 8, 2023

8th.

The BBC eats itself; Route his 10pm news to a controversial tweet from his football host rather than the topic at hand.

— Mark Austin (@markaustintv) March 8, 2023

9.

Dear BBC, A gentle reminder that this is on the side of your bloody HQ. If I were you I would fire the chair who withheld the truth NOT the moderator who told it. pic.twitter.com/IFhFwM0fa9

— Count Binface (@CountBinface) March 9, 2023

10

John Humphrys just said the BBC did @GaryLineker famous. But I have no idea about football

— jennylandreth (@[email protected]) (@jennylandreth) March 8, 2023

11.

Too bad to hear a journalist @Matthewsyed no support for freedom of expression @GaryLineker. I was raised to believe that it is fundamental that every journalist should believe in it. But there appears to be freedom of expression for some, not all.

—Jeff Stelling (@JeffStelling) March 8, 2023

12.

If the BBC ends up firing Gary Lineker, they’ll also have to trade their chairman, Alan Sugar, Fiona Bruce, Robbie Gibb and every repeat of Michael Portillo, also boarding a train in his red trousers

— Dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@mrdavemacleod) March 9, 2023