Gary Lineker has been photographed smiling as he insisted he stands by his comments, where he appeared to liken the Government's new immigration policy to Nazi Germany.
In his tweet on Tuesday, Lineker commented on a Home Office video in which Ms Braverman unveiled the Government’s plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats and said the UK is being “overwhelmed”.
Sharing the video of Ms Braverman, Gary wrote: “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.“
In a later tweet, Lineker added: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries.
“This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s.”
The tweet has been liked more than 56,700 times and received more than 9,240 retweets, with fans agreeing with his comments. However, others disagreed with the BBC-employed presenter making the remark.
Downing Street later described the remarks as “not acceptable” and “disappointing” – with some urging the presenter to be axed from the BBC for appearing to break the broadcaster's guidelines on impartiality.
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Meanwhile, it was reported the BBC would speak to footie pundit Lineker over the tweet.
But, the Match of the Day star has now told reporters he stands by his tweet and does not fear being axed from the BBC.
When asked “do you stand by what you said in your tweet?”, he said “course”, and when asked “do you fear getting suspended?”, Lineker told reporters “no”, PA reports.
As he was asked if he would like to make a comment, the former professional football player said: “Yes I would like to say something, very good morning to you,” as he walked to a waiting car outside his London home.
Lineker then climbed into the rear passenger seat of the car as he was asked if he had spoken to the BBC, to which he said: “I’m always talking to the BBC.”
Asked if he had spoken to the director general Tim Davie, he said, after a pause, “yeah” before adding “he said… well we chat often”.
Earlier, BBC director general Tim told the BBC he had not spoken to Lineker, before being asked about how many “strikes” he has had on impartiality and social media.
Mr Davie said: “I wouldn’t talk specifically about individuals; I don’t think it’s right. I think the BBC absolutely puts the highest value on impartiality and that’s clearly important to us.”
Meanwhile, Piers Morgan defended his pal – whom he nicknames 'Jugs' – on his Talk TV show.
He said: ”It's an interesting debate, my view is that it's clearly incendiary, what Gary Lineker said, and historically wrong, I think there's no comparison to what this current British government is proposing to what Nazi Germany did – Gary got a bit carried away, this is what he tends to do.
”This is what he does and he would say the same about me. We both have strong opinions, we both believe in what we say and we express them forcefully. But we agree to disagree. And I have no problem with Gary Lineker – a football presenter, sports presenter – form giving his views.”
Piers continued: ”He's not a BBC news journalist, he's not anchoring the News at 10, Question Time or Newsnight, he's a football presenter doing Match of the Day and other major sporting events.
”He's a celebrity and a public figure. People want to know, his 8.5 million followers want to know what he thinks about stuff.
”Why do we pretend that people like him exist in a sealed BBC bubble of perfect propriety, where no opinions exist.”
