BBC tells veteran journalist to say sorry to Gary Lineker for slamming his anti-government tweets

BBC bosses have ordered a senior journalist to issue an apology to Gary Lineker after criticising his anti-government tweets.

Lineker, who was the BBC’s best-paid presenter last year, had questioned politicians for allowing sewage to be discharged into English waters.

He wrote on Twitter: ‘As a politician how could you ever, under any circumstances, bring yourself to vote for pumping sewage into our seas? Unfathomable!’

The tweet prompted veteran BBC journalist Neil Henderson, a home and foreign news editor, to ask the £1.35million-a-year Match of the Day host if his contract allowed him to breach the corporation’s impartiality rules.

The tweet prompted veteran BBC journalist Neil Henderson (pictured), a home and foreign news editor, to ask the £1.35million-a-year Match of the Day host if his contract allowed him to breach the corporation’s impartiality rules

Mr Henderson, who posts newspaper front pages on Twitter each night, said if he had shared the same thing he would have been sacked. The row escalated last week as Mr Henderson accused Lineker of breaching the corporation’s impartiality rules.

The journalist wrote to him: ‘The BBC lives or dies by its impartiality. If you can’t abide it, get off it.’

But yesterday Mr Henderson wrote: ‘I’d like to apologise for earlier tweets (now deleted) responding to Gary Lineker. I should have shown more consideration to a BBC colleague – as per the BBC’s social media guidelines.’ Lineker has previously angered BBC staffers by ignoring impartiality rules to share his opinions on Brexit.

In 2018 cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew wrote: ‘Gary. You are the face of BBC Sport. Please observe BBC editorial guidelines and keep your political views… to yourself.’