If ministers had wanted their hardline policy on asylum seekers to be seen as a necessary response to a crisis, then they have failed spectacularly. Successive Tory governments have devoted much of their time to undermining the capacity of the country’s political culture, media and civil society to oppose them. Firmly in their sights has been the BBC, the most trusted – and most widely viewed – source of news. But the row over criticism by one of the corporation’s best known faces, Gary Lineker, of ministers’ “illegal migration bill” has exposed the limits of the government’s strategy.
While Auntie has been accused of bias from both sides of the political divide, the allegations the BBC leadership have taken most seriously have come from politicians threatening to abolish the licence fee. When Tim Davie became the BBC’s director general he told staff that if they wanted to be a partisan campaigner on social media then “you should not be working at the BBC”. But many of the BBC’s best known faces are not permanently employed by the corporation, and when they are offended by events they have tweeted their opinions. Mr Lineker is one of them. The trouble, for Tory ministers, was that he stood up for vulnerable refugees and against their callous policy rather than amplifying rightwing talking points.
The pitchforks and torches were quickly raised. But the nakedly partisan attacks on Mr Lineker backfired. His colleagues closed ranks to support the presenter, playing havoc with the BBC’s weekend football schedule. This government is also nervous of being tarred as the nasty party, and cannot afford to alienate socially liberal voters. On Monday the corporation apologised for its handling of the row. Mr Lineker was reinstated, tweeting audaciously that his recent difficulties “don’t compare to having to flee your home from persecution or war”.
Much of what Mr Lineker said was not new, but such unabashed liberal dissent from a popular figure has been missing from political discourse. This is, in part, because the Labour party had not summoned the moral courage to say the right thing. Mr Lineker ought to be congratulated for shaming the opposition into action. The public is waking up to the dangerous incompetence of the Tory government. The number of people appointed to the BBC as a reward for their Conservative support is becoming an issue. This weekend’s events highlight why Richard Sharp, the corporation chairman, should resign. Normally the chair would come out and defend the BBC. But Mr Sharp could not, because he is under investigation for failing to disclose, when applying for his job, his role in helping Boris Johnson get access to a reputed £800,000 loan.
BBC news journalists rightly leave their opinions at home. The corporation is not alone in having guidelines about social media use but it can’t realistically police the opinion of every freelance non‑news contributor. Whatever new guidelines the BBC comes up with must be workable and fairly enforced. The public values the BBC as a news organisation that uses its independence to ask hard questions of those in power. But applying impartiality tests to all output is a fool’s errand. The corporation buys content from about 350 independent production companies. It runs the world’s most visited news website, eight domestic TV channels and dozens of radio stations. It is unreasonable to expect every BBC contributor’s views to conform to what ministers think is acceptable just to shield government policy from critical scrutiny by wider society.
• This article was amended on 16 March 2023. An earlier version incorrectly stated that the BBC runs the world’s most visited website, rather than news website.
