Jeremy Clarkson has spoken out on the controversy surrounding the BBC’s decision to take Gary Lineker off air from Match of the Day this weekend
Jeremy Clarkson has shared his thoughts on the BBC forcing Gary Linker off air from Match of the Day this weekend after his nemesis Piers Morgan compared The Grand Tour star and former England footballer.
The former Top Gear host shared his support to Ian Wright over the Match of the Day pundit announced he would not be taking part in Saturday’s show after the BBC forced Gary Lineker to “step back” from presenting.
Wright tweeted: “Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity,” to which Clarkson replied: “Good on you mate.”
The tweet comes after Morgan compared Lineker and Clarkson live on-air on Thursday.
On his TalkTV show Piers Morgan Uncensored, he said: “One is a woke warrior, the other is a culture warrior who mainly talks about cars. One of them invites me to dinner while the other punches me in the face.
“Clarkson and Lineker could hardly be more different but what unites them is they have both been victims of witch-hunts over recent months.”
He claimed the Clarkson’s Farm star’s career suffered when he “made a crass ham-fisted joke about Meghan” and predicted many want to see Lineker dealt a similar fate.
“Many of the anti-Clarkson lot are the very same people who are now defending Lineker,” Morgan continued. “In this side of two halves, both sides are wrong.”
Clarkson isn’t the only famous face to speak out on the row between Lineker and the BBC with former Pointless star Richard Osman, taking to Twitter to say: “This is pathetic for so many reasons.”
Gary Neville shared a news report about the statement and added: “When you take on the Tories and the system! Awful people who we need gone. Off for a [wine].”
Wright confirmed he would not be joining Match of the Day after a spokesperson for the BBC confirmed on Friday that Lineker would not be presenting the show until an agreement has been made regarding his future use of social media.
Match of the Day presenter Alan Shearer later confirmed he would also not be appearing in Saturday’s show.
He tweeted: “I have informed the BBC that I won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow night.”
Earlier in the week, Lineker criticised the government’s new Migration Bill and branded it as “beyond awful” after it was unveiled by home secretary Suella Braverman on Tuesday, later adding: “This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.”
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