Gary Lineker, 62, received a surprise message of support from none other than Hollywood actor Stanley Tucci, also 62. The Academy Award nominee took to Instagram to share an excerpt from Gary’s statement when he was reinstated as the host of Match of the Day after a row over his tweets.
The quote Stanley shared read: “However difficult the last few days have been, it simply doesn’t compare to having to flee your home from persecution or war to seek refuge in a land far away.”
Accompanying the image on his Story, The Lovely Bones star wrote: “When I grow up I want to be @garylineker.”
A stunned Gary reshared Stanley’s post to his own story along with a blushing emoji.
Stanley is from New York but moved to London when he met his wife Felicity, who is the sister of his Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt.
It comes as an impartiality row was sparked when Gary was taken off air for a tweet comparing the language used to launch a new Government asylum seeker policy with that of 1930s Germany.
He was later reinstated, and the BBC apologised and committed to review its social media guidelines.
The row even dominated Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday as Sir Keir Starmer said Rishi Sunak must “stand up to his snowflake MPs waging war on free speech”.
Mr Sunak then accused the Labour leader of the “usual political opportunism” and insisted he cares about the integrity and impartiality of the country’s institutions, including the BBC.
On Wednesday, Gary also described accusations that he called northern voters “racist bigots” as “outrageous and dangerously provocative”.
He took to Twitter once again in response to comments made by Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis.
During an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Gullis said he was not concerned with upsetting members of the “Twitterati”.
Speaking about Rishi Sunak’s recent legislation on small boats, he said: “[It’s] certainly tough and upset all the right people in the right places as far as I’m concerned.
“Let’s be clear, when I talk about upsetting people I’m talking about the Twitterati, the Wokerati of North Islington, those champagne socialists who pontificate all day.
“Those are the people I don’t care upsetting, because those are the people who want to call people up here racist bigots, Nazis, like Gary Lineker has done.”
Responding to the clip, another Twitter user wrote: “I don’t think Gary Lineker has actually directly called Red Wall voters ‘Nazis’ Mr Gullis.”
Lineker also replied, writing: “No he hasn’t and never would. This is outrageous and dangerously provocative.”
It comes after BBC director-general Tim Davie announced that Lineker would be returning to present Match Of The Day on Saturday.
Mr Davie apologised for the recent impartiality row, sparked by one of the presenter’s previous tweets, and announced a review of social media guidelines at the broadcaster.
Lineker “will abide by the editorial guidelines” until a review of the BBC’s social media policy is complete, Mr Davie said.
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