DAN Walker has taken a swipe at the BBC as he waded into Gary Lineker’s suspension row.
Dan, 46, left the BBC in the spring last year for a new role at Channel 5 News.
Dan Walker has taken a swipe at the BBC as he waded into Gary Lineker’s suspension row
Gary was suspended by the BBC in March over tweets he had made about the Government
During his time at the BBC, he co-hosted BBC Breakfast and presented Final Score and Match of the Day.
Dan has now spoken out about former colleague Gary’s suspension from Match of the Day earlier this year, which came amid an impartiality row after he criticised the Government’s new asylum policy.
Gary, 62, was eventually reinstated after huge backlash from viewers and his colleagues, who boycotted the show as a sign of allegiance until he returned.
Dan revealed he also supported the former footballer, saying: “I know Gary well, and I’ve always thought that the audience is clever enough to see the difference between the guy who sits on Match of the Day and the opinions that he has on social media.”
He added to The Mirror: “And I think if you feel that you can’t watch Match of the Day because you disagree with his political stance, I think that says a lot more about you than it does about him.”
As for how the furore played out, he said: “You think, ‘Why didn’t you just deal with it like this before it snowballed into this?'”
He continued to defend Gary, saying: “I think Gary never had a news contract and he always said that. And there is a difference there.
“Everybody in presenting has those conversations with their bosses at some stage about where that line is and trying not to cross it.”
Gary has hosted Match of the Day since 1999.
Following his suspension in March, his BBC Sport colleagues including Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Alex Scott, Mark Chapman, Jermaine Jenas, Dion Dublin and Jermain Defoe all pulled out of their respective roles in BBC programmes in the next hours in solidarity with him.
It forced the network to reduce its sports-related schedules for two days and Match of the Day featuring only game footage with no punditry or analysis.
Gary was reinstated after backlash from viewers and his colleagues
Dan defended Gary in a new interview
