Gary Lineker will "step back" from presenting until an agreement is reached on his use of social media following an impartiality row sparked by his criticism of the British government's new asylum policy, the BBC said on Friday.READ | Afcon hero of 1996 in ICU: Ex-Bafana coach Clive Barker diagnosed with Lewy body dementiaThe former England footballer, who presents the flagship Match of the Day show, compared the language used to launch the new policy to the rhetoric of Nazi-era Germany.A BBC spokesperson said: "The BBC has been in extensive discussions with Gary and his team in recent days.
We have said that we consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines."The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting Match Of The Day until we've got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media."The row was sparked by Lineker's response on Twitter to a video in which Home Secretary Suella Braverman unveiled plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats.Lineker, 62, wrote: "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 Conservative government intends to outlaw asylum claims by all illegal arrivals and transfer them elsewhere, such as Rwanda, in a bid to stop thousands of migrants from crossing the Channel on small boats.Stopping the boats is the "people's priority", Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons earlier this week, vowing also to "break the criminal gangs" profiting from the journeys. Rights fears But rights groups and the United Nations said the