Gary Lineker row: No 10 refuses to say Sunak has confidence in Tim Davie as star ‘delighted’ to return to BBC – live
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The broadcaster and former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell has thrown his support behind Lineker’s return to presenting.
It’s important to make clear that Campbell’s popular podcast, The Rest of Politics, is produced by Lineker’s company, Goalhanger Podcasts.
In an interview with BBC News being widely shared on social media, Campbell says the resolution is a “complete vindication” for Lineker.
Campbell says the saga is about much more than Lineker, with major questions for the BBC.
He says the BBC chair, Richard Sharp, is damaging the brand of the BBC and also calls for Sir Robbie Gibb to step down from the broadcaster’s board.
Campbell says it is a “good day for the BBC” because it has shown it can stand up to “righwing creeping authoritarianism”.
He said Tory MPs and ministers like Lee Anderson and Suella Braverman believe dividing the public is a “winning strategy” and the lesson to take from the Lineker row is that it “might not be”.
Richard Sharp is a Tory donor, has little broadcasting experience and arranged a loan for Boris Johnson when he was PM, and did not reveal this before he was appointed, so must step down as chair, Campbell says.
Lineker has “behaved impeccably”, Campbell says.
“He like everyone else has been shocked by the extent to which this has blown up,” he says.