Gary Lineker: BBC wants to 'pick and choose' when presenters can be impartial says John Barnes

The BBC wants to “pick and choose” when its presenters can be impartial, former England football star John Barnes has said.

Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Mr Barnes said: “I don’t know when the BBC has ever been impartial but BBC reporting on the World Cup was anything but impartial.

“So, it seems that they want to pick and choose when they want to be partial, criticising others or criticising other countries or other political parties or other religions seems to be okay.

“But, of course, if you then criticise what goes on in this country, then it seems that they will then come up with the impartiality rule.”

Former BBC director-general Mark Thompson said he “absolutely hopes” and “believes” Tim Davie, the broadcaster’s current boss, will survive the impartiality row surrounding Gary Lineker.

Speaking on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Thompson, who served in the role between 2004 and 2012, said that “on the face of it” Lineker’s tweet was a “technical breach” of BBC guidelines which state those working for the BBC outside of its news and factual departments still have an “additional responsibility” given their profile.

He added: “I think we have also got our old friend the grey area here. In other words, no-one thinks this is the same as you or Huw Edwards doing it. This is not like a news presenter basically tearing up the impartiality principles inside the news machine.”

Pressed on whether BBC chairman Richard Sharp, who has faced growing calls to resign over the cronyism row caused by him helping Boris Johnson secure an £800,000 loan facility, should temporarily step aside until the issue is resolved, Mr Thompson said: “Gary Lineker is an active broadcaster for the BBC. Richard Sharp is part of the governing body which doesn’t take decisions in real time about actual editorial matters.”

He said “the most sensible thing again is just calm down, ignore the papers and let the person who is doing the inquiry complete their inquiry” instead of making decisions “on the fly”.

Asked whether he thought Lineker would be back on air tonight, he replied: “I hope so.”

Asked whether he thought Mr Davie would survive this, he added: “I absolutely hope so and believe so.”