Will Gary Lineker get a red card from the BBC over his tweets? Probably not

Gary Lineker may have famously managed to avoid being carded for foul play during a 16-year professional football career, but the latest politically loaded social media salvo from the BBC’s highest-paid presenter has the corporation’s director general seeing red.

Tim Davie, who may now be rueing the £6.75m deal to keep the former England star at the BBC until 2025 that was announced two weeks after he took over running the corporation, has made it his mission to rebuild a “fragile trust” with government by reining in perceived impartiality on and off screen. To that end, an ultra-strict social media policy is now in force for news staff.

The problem Davie faces is an inability to control his biggest star – as a member of the sports department Lineker doesn’t have to automatically abide by the new rules.

The multimillionaire, who has more than 10 million social media followers, knows his brand is bigger than needing to fit a BBC plan to placate ministers. The royal charter expires in 2027, although negotiations are unlikely to begin in earnest until after the next general election.

“Lineker could disappear from the BBC tomorrow and still have a very lucrative career,” says the PR expert Mark Borkowski. “In that sense Gary Lineker is bigger than the BBC. How do you deal with someone with a huge following, who has displayed a social conscience, and has happily faced up to being considered Marmite to a lot of people on social media?”

Lineker’s tweets on topics such as Brexit have long been an issue for the BBC, attracting criticism from rightwing newspapers and Conservative MPs.

In October, he was publicly reprimanded by the BBC for breaking impartiality guidelines after he tweeted about the Conservative party taking money