Leftie luvvie Gary Lineker ‘should be sacked’ for peddling charity lie about ‘child migrant, 38’
BBC under pressure to act as Match of the Day host, 55, attacked for political tweets
THE BBC was under pressure to fire Gary Lineker last night after he spread false claims about an Afghan at the centre of the child migrant storm.
The jug-eared Match of the Day host had already sparked fury by branding anyone questioning the age of dubious child refugees “hideously racist”.
But millionaire Lineker went on to retweet a charity’s lie that the oldest-looking asylum seeker pictured with new arrivals was a Home Office interpreter.
The left-leaning ex-England striker, 55, stepped in after fostering charity TACT tweeted a Sun snap of the migrant, who claimed to be 18 when computerised facial analysis suggested he was 38.
The organisation said: “This is a picture of an adult interpreter working for @ukhomeoffice.”
TEST EXPOSES 'KID' AS ADULT
ONE of the first “child” refugees arriving from Calais was exposed as an adult just 72 hours after setting foot in Britain, The Sun can reveal.
Immigration officials identified him as over 18 after his fingerprints were run through a biometric database.
Last night a source said: “This is hugely embarrassing for the Home Office and it’s a complete mess.”
Another added: “If it’s only taken a few days for the first case to emerge, how many others will there be?
“It will only increase the clamour for a far more stringent system to be enforced to verify age on arrival.”
The man, not the one said to be about 38, is thought to be only just over 18. And he may get asylum regardless of his real age if officials rule he meets strict criteria.
Gary Lineker forwarded the message to his 5.3million followers with the words: “Wow! Surely not?” — sparking social media indignation.
But the Home Office yesterday confirmed the unidentified migrant was not their employee and instead among the group entering the UK claiming to be children.
Lineker, who earns £2million a year from the BBC, was last night accused of breaching Beeb guidelines on impartiality.
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Tory MP David TC Davies said: “I hope he apologises. I question if the BBC should be employing him when he seems to be using his fame to push out his rather emotive and controversial views.”
Fellow Tory Alec Shelbrooke said: “He needs to decide if he’s a political activist or BBC sports journalist — he can’t be both.”
Lineker refused to admit his error last night.
His spokesman told The Sun: “He won’t be commenting, especially not to you.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “Gary is a freelance broadcaster and this is a personal Twitter account.”
STAFF WARNED IN BBC RULES
BBC editorial guidelines warn that presenters’ “external activities” must not affect the public’s “perception” of its impartiality — or bring the broadcaster into “disrepute”.
After the Brexit referendum, staunch EU Remainer Lineker tweeted: “Feel ashamed of my generation. We’ve let down our children and their children.”
He later swore in a Twitter rant over N’Golo Kante leaving Leicester City for Chelsea.