BBC boss apologises for sport disruption but will not resign

It has been a fast moving day as the fallout from the BBC asking Gary Lineker to step back from presenting Match of the Day continues.

Here is what has happened:

• BBC One will air highlights of today's games on Match of the Day but the show will only be 20 minutes long, with no commentary or punditry after pundits and commentators backed Lineker
• There has been disruption across BBC sports output with Football Focus, Final Score and football coverage on 5 Live pulled from the air
• BBC director general Tim Davie has apologised for the impact on sports coverage but said he would not resign over it
• Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has spoken on the row for the first time, saying he hoped it would be resolved in a "timely manner" but was a matter for the BBC and Lineker
• As the controversy continued Lineker watched his beloved Leicester City lose to Chelsea at the King Power stadium, where he was seen taking pictures with fans
• Some football supporters have held up signs in support of the Match of the Day presenter while there was also a small protest outside the BBC office in Salford where it is filmed.

Read more here.

If you want to watch the BBC's full interview with Tim Davie - conducted this evening by Nomia Iqbal in Washington DC - here it is below.

That's the question the BBC's Nomia Iqbal put to the director general today.

"If he'd replied to Suella Braverman to say 'I support your migrant policy, I back it, it's brilliant', he would be taking an opinion. Would you have removed him for that?" she asks Davie.

"I'm not going to go through all the hypotheticals of the past," he responds.

"We deal with these things on an ongoing basis. I think there are some questions coming from this period which has been difficult," he responds.

In an interview in the US, Nomia Iqbal asks Tim Davie about BBC chairman Richard Sharp's position. He came under further scrutiny over claims he arranged a loan for the then-prime minister Boris Johnson.

Davie says while he has "a lot of responsibilities in this job for thousands of people" the one thing he does not do is the appointment of the chair.

"The way in which the board is hired and that role is a different thing to editorially me running the BBC, making those decisions and trying to be fair and getting a BBC that is truly impartial.

"We should be fighting for this in this world. Calmly, rationally fighting for a BBC that actually champions free speech."

Tim Davie says he is listening to feedback about how editorial guidelines are applied to different BBC staff.

He says there are questions about how they apply to freelancers within the organisation.

When asked if he would remove other presenters like Lord Sugar, Chris Packham or Karren Brady who also give their opinions, he said: "the current guidelines as they exist today... do draw distinction between those people who are seen as pan-BBC figures... that are different to those appearing on programmes. We can debate that."

“I am in listening mode. I want to make sure that going forward we have a workable solution.”

While Rishi Sunak’s statement has softened the tone from the government, and ministers have gone quiet since Lineker was suspended, for Labour the opposite is true. They’ve been getting more vocal and more critical.

Earlier in the week it was a tricky issue for them.

The government was on the front foot. It was trying to attack Labour, which it wants to paint as weak on illegal immigration.

Now Lineker has been suspended and there is an outcry Labour is weighing in.

It’s an opportunity for Labour to try to get back on the front foot. It can do that by criticising the BBC for having "got this one badly wrong" and "caving" to Tory MPs.

And it also gives Sir Keir Starmer an opening to criticise the whole small boats policy too. Earlier he said: "At the heart of this is the government’s failure on the asylum system. And rather than take responsibility for the mess they’ve made, the government is casting around to blame anybody else - Gary Lineker, the BBC, civil servants."

Amid all the noise in this affair Rishi Sunak hadn’t before now uttered the words "Gary Lineker" as far as I can tell. So why now?

Through the week a host of his top team had been all too happy to weigh in.

Sunak’s Press Secretary (speaking on his behalf), Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, immigration minister Robert Jenrick and Home Office minister Chris Philp all criticised Lineker’s comments.

And Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: "I don’t think anything that is happening in the UK today can come close to what happened in the Holocaust."

That’s a lot of ministers caring about an issue enough to address it. They didn’t explicitly call for action against Lineker, but criticised him roundly.

The minute Lineker was suspended that dynamic changed. No ministers commenting, just an official line: "individual cases are a matter for the BBC."

The government, it seems, was happy enough to weigh in while the issue gained momentum. It kept the story in the headlines.

Number 10 wants people to see it’s pushing ahead with its new legislation on small boats. If the plan causes some outrage, from Downing Street’s viewpoint, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It helps create the impression this is a tough approach, pushing boundaries. Which might translate into support among its target voters.

But the minute Gary Lineker was suspended it became a bit more tricky. Now, if you are in Number 10, you don’t want to be dragged into the row any further.

He’s popular, there’s a backlash growing as his colleagues rally behind him. And there’s already lots of criticism about the Conservatives putting pressure on the BBC.

If this ends with Lineker leaving the BBC you want as much distance from that decision as possible.

Hence time for a prime ministerial comment.

Time to soften the tone, praise Lineker - he’s "a great footballer and is a talented presenter". Time to say the PM "hopes" this can be "resolved" but it’s for the BBC "not the government".

An effort to extricate the PM in case there’s fall out.

If you're wondering what exactly it was that Lineker was responding to in his tweet, here's some of the powers the government's new Illegal Migration Bill includes:

• The bill would allow the UK government to detain and remove asylum seekers arriving via illegal routes. They can be sent to Rwanda or a "safe" third country. This will take legal precedence over someone's right to claim asylum
• Once removed, asylum seekers will be blocked from returning or seeking British citizenship in the future
• Those found to have entered illegally won't be granted bail and won't be able to seek judicial review for the first 28 days of their detention
• Children, those medically unfit to fly or those at risk of serious harm in the country they would be sent to will be able to delay their removal
• Any other asylum claims will be heard remotely after removal from the UK
• The law will also create a cap on refugees settled "through safe and legal routes", set annually by Parliament

Labour called the legislation a "con that risks making the chaos worse", but Ms Braverman told MPs it was time to stop the UK "being taken for a ride".

Read more about the Illegal Migration Bill here.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended his government's proposed immigration bill.

He described Lineker as a "great footballer and talented presenter" but said "we need to break this cycle of misery once and for all and the policy we set out this week I believe aims to do just that."

He said he hoped the row between Lineker and the BBC was resolved "in a timely manner", but added that it was not a matter for the government.

The prime minister said while he acknowledged not everyone would agree with his policy, he believed what he was doing was "fair and right".

Sunak said the bill - which would see anyone who seeks asylum in the UK via illegal routes removed from the country and blocked from returning in the future - was "the compassionate thing to do".

There has been a small protest outside the BBC's offices in Salford, where Match of the Day and much of BBC Sport's output is made.

About a dozen people from Greater Manchester Stand Up to Racism took part, with a banner being held up saying "Reinstate Gary Lineker" and other signs saying "Refugees welcome here".

BBCCopyright: BBC

The BBC's handling of the Gary Lineker row will "likely prove disastrous for its reputation", the broadcasting union says.

Philippa Childs, the head of Bectu, says the BBC's response is "hugely disappointing" and the strength of feeling from staff and members of the public should indicate it was a "massive misstep".

"Our thoughts are with all BBC staff at what we know is an incredibly challenging time, and we are here to support our members however we can," she says. "We fully understand the depth of feeling and why some freelancers will elect to not work on BBC sport programmes today or choose to join protests."

She also refers to the controversy involving BBC chairman Richard Sharp and says many will be "rightly confused why those at the highest levels of the corporation are apparently immune to the stringent guidelines applied to everyone else".

BBCCopyright: BBC

BBC chairman Richard Sharp is facing fresh calls to resign amid the Gary Lineker impartiality row.

His appointment in that role has come under scrutiny after The Sunday Times alleged Sharp had helped to arrange an £800,000 loan for then-prime minister Boris Johnson, while he was in consideration for the BBC board position.

Sharp denies a conflict of interest and says he simply connected people, but he has been criticised in a report from MPs, and his appointment is under investigation by the independent office of public appointments.

Earlier, former BBC director general Greg Dyke said the ongoing controversy around Sharp - who he said he liked - helped fuel perceptions that the organisation was failing to stand up to government pressure.

Making the comparison to Lineker, Labour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell told BBC Breakfast the "same cries of impartiality were completely absent" when Sharp "failed to disclose" his relationship with Johnson.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is calling for Sharp to resign, saying there had been a "failure at the very top of the BBC" and calling his position "untenable".

However, BBC culture and media editor Katie Razzall makes the point that the BBC has no say in the chairman's appointment - it is a political appointment - and is now being investigated.

As a board member Sharp does not have a say in editorial matters, she adds.

Here's some more on Richard Sharp.

BBC Radio Wales's Call Rob Phillips programme won't be going to air this evening as a result of the BBC's limited sport programming.

In its place will be a replay of a classical concert celebrating 100 years of the BBC in Wales.

A BBC spokesperson said "we are sorry for these changes which we recognise will be disappointing for BBC sport fans".

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Pundit and former Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe says he won't appear on Sunday evening's Match of the Day 2 programme.

Defoe tweeted: "It's always such a privilege to work with BBC MOTD. But tomorrow I have taken the decision to stand down from my punditry duties."

It can look a bit complicated when BBC News is covering a story about the BBC. As Scott Bryan, who has a podcast on Radio 5 Live, highlighted on Twitter.

But with stories like today's, BBC News journalists treat the BBC in the same way as any other organisation the news service reports on.

And like with any other organisation, BBC News has to ask BBC management or BBC services for responses and contact the BBC Press Office for official statements.

Occasionally BBC journalists approach senior managers for unplanned interviews - known as "doorsteps" in the news business - like the one yesterday by Nomia Iqbal, who grabbed a few words from the BBC Director General Tim Davie when he was in the US.