Lineker works for the BBC, he should play by their rules

The BBC and Gary Lineker are in positions that seem fundamentally incompatible. The corporation says that its editorial guidelines must apply to presenters, while Lineker - as he has made plain to reporters outside his home - believes he has a right to free speech and to call out policies that he finds abhorrent.

- ROGER MOSEY

His tweets about the home secretary Suella Braverman, and his comparison with the current debate about refugees to the language used in Nazi Germany, show a high level of passion. I know Lineker to be an intelligent and deep-thinking man, with a conscience that is to be admired; but I also think he is on the wrong side of this argument with the BBC.

The simple fact is that Lineker accepts £1.4m per annum from the BBC, funded by the licence payers of the UK, and that relationship is formalised in a contract. The editorial guidelines apply to all BBC presenters and staff.

It is true that Lineker, as a brilliant footballer and England captain, became a national figure in his own right irrespective of the BBC; they cannot be said to have created him. But his longevity in the public eye is a direct result of his BBC role presenting a weekly programme in Match of the Day, and being the face of the World Cup, the Euro football tournaments and the London Olympics.