Gary Lineker should stop sniping from sidelines and take up a challenge to stand as an MP – Aidan Smith

Gary Lineker’s heart may be in the right place but that sense is diminished by smug enjoyment of his notoriety

Every time Gary Lineker flashes that fetching, £1.35 million-a-year smile – and it should be much in evidence tonight when he hosts the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year – I think back to the time we met. It was the turn of the century and his media career was progressing nicely.

After the knockabout sports quiz They Think It’s All Over, he’d just been handed the presenter’s gig for Match of the Day. “The boy Lineker”, as football clichedom decreed he should be addressed as a player, was keen to be taken seriously – if fronting highlights of games can ever be so termed. Now it seems the show isn’t serious enough for him.

That was a strange interview. There were three of us in his dressing- room at Broadcasting House. The extra element was not, as is sometimes the case with celebrities, a PR to hold his hand but Lineker’s own reflection in the mirror. He kept looking at it, at one point adjusting his seating position to face himself, offering me as an alternative an interesting view of one of his distinctive lugholes.

Gary Lineker is upsetting the Tories again. But what's his solution to the country's problems? (Picture: Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

Now, I’ve only conducted side-on interviews on three other occasions, all with Bryan Ferry, but that was down to the rock star’s innate shyness and there weren’t any mirrors around. There was no way Lineker could have been bored with my incisive questions, I’d decided, so that day he was simply enjoying the view – although he’s hardly the first in Tellyland to display vanity.

Comparisons with Nazi Germany

So here we are two decades on and he’s bored with football. He hasn’t said as much – not yet – but there’s this flourishing other life as a moral arbiter, relentlessly on the case of unfeeling political incompetents. Could the boy do any better? Will we one day see Gary Lineker, MP?

There’s a lot going on here and first off, having often come away from interviewing sports people disappointed at the lack of a hinterland or even a hobby, I can hardly complain about one who doesn’t just read the back pages but is aware of what’s going on in the world. The question is: can he be this outspoken when he’s an employee of a public broadcaster bound by impartiality rules?

Sports presenters may not be as tied to the code as the Beeb’s news division but those rules were rewritten in the summer in the wake of Lineker comparing Home Office immigration policy to Nazi Germany. The so-called “Lineker clause” restricts what he can say politically, with zero tolerance in the lead-up to elections and a ban on criticising the “individual character” of politicians.

Last week, though, after he signed an open letter calling for a “fair, kind” asylum system, some Conservative politicians had a verbal kick at Lineker. The ex-footballer – never sent off or even booked – couldn’t resist sniping back and alluded to Grant Shapps having used pseudonyms while flogging get-rich opportunities.

So has Lineker contravened the “individual character” directive here? Surely the Beeb – so determinedly opposed to cancel culture – can’t gag one of their own over something which has attracted much comment and criticism elsewhere. And surely Tory libertarians believe in free speech, too. This is complicated. Maybe a version of football’s VAR is needed to sort it out. Actually, cancel that.

World Cup boycott

The issue will need resolving, though. The election lead-up is fast approaching and it seems unlikely that Lineker, with 8.9 million followers on social media, will suddenly feel compelled to gag himself. What’s his game then? Is he forcing an ideological impasse leading to a bust-up with Auntie where he walks away as a kind of martyr, albeit one who would inevitably be consoled by the offer of even greater millions from rival broadcasters?

Is he a good guy who’s simply speaking out or as some have claimed a poseur? If you believe his heart’s in the right place – and I can sometimes be persuaded of this – then that is diminished by smug enjoyment of his notoriety. The day after his Nazi referencing and the storm that provoked he tweeted: “Morning all, anything going on?”

He’s become politicised. Good. More people should be. But, his critics have argued, why didn’t Lineker’s latent right-onness extend to boycotting the World Cup in Qatar given that country’s poor human-rights record?

He’s exposed himself to even more rigorous questioning of the day job. Is he really worth £1.35 million for that smile, a jokey introduction and rehearsed banter with the Match of the Day pundits? Watching the show on record, many fast-forward through the chit-chat. Anyone could fulfill the presenter’s function. The Beeb could hand it over to AI, saving some money.

Lineker’s suspension earlier in the year brought colleagues out in support and the football was broadcast without commentary or analysis. But his latest outbursts have reportedly left some exasperated and fearing they will damage the BBC’s standing with MPs at a crucial moment with a lower-than-expected licence fee increase leaving a £90 million hole in budgets.

Another thing which doesn’t reflect well on Lineker – unlike that mirror 20-odd years ago – is that he’s playing at politics the way he used to play football. Admittedly prolific, many of his strikes were from close range and some were tap-ins. It’s the easiest thing in the world right now to slag off the Tories – this government is the equivalent of an open goal.

What’s his answer to an incredibly complex problem like illegal migration? If he doesn’t have one beyond snide tweets then he’s not much different from a bar-room bore. Another MP involved in the most recent spats, Jonathan Gullis, has challenged Lineker to stand for Parliament against him. The boy should do it.