Middlesbrough MP Simon Clarke brands Lineker tweet 'deeply inappropriate' and 'tasteless'

A Conservative MP has said he disagrees "very profoundly" with what Gary Lineker said in the tweet that sparked the row engulfing the BBC.

Speaking on the BBC's political programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Simon Clarke said: "I disagree very profoundly with what Gary Lineker said. I think the comparisons to 1930s as he's made are deeply inappropriate and actually very tasteless."

Lineker, 62, compared the language used to launch a new Government asylum seeker policy with 1930s Germany on Twitter.

Asked why it matters what a sports presenter says, the MP replied: "Mr Lineker has a huge reach and the reality is that he is obviously operating on a publicly-funded broadcaster, he is someone whose platform largely derives from his role at the BBC, he's saying things which are partisan and I think which are also deeply unfair."

He called the situation a "mess" and said the BBC needs to resolve "ambiguity" in its guidelines.

Mr Clarke continued: "I don't like cancel culture of any kind, I don't like to see people being taken off air.

"I think there is a slight irony here and a slight hypocrisy because obviously I wonder how many of the same people calling for Gary Lineker to be restored were calling for Jeremy Clarkson a few weeks ago to be removed."

Some Labour MPs, meanwhile, have tweeted in support of Gary Lineker and those boycotting programmes in support of him.

Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery commended the "great solidarity" on display when Ian Wright triggered the wave of boycotts.

City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy wrote: "The #BBC quickly learning what happens when you take on 3 of England’s greatest strikers."

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