BBC presenter Gary Lineker pleaded ignorance over an Instagram post using a rat emoji when discussing Zionists, prompting "furious new calls for the BBC to sack him," due to the alleged antisemitic connotations, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.
Nazi Germany used rats as a slur against Jews, and have remained in antisemitic messaging since.
Lineker claims to have failed to notice the image in a video by the Palestine Lobby campaign group, which he shared on his personal Instagram account. A spokesperson clarified to Telegraph Sport that Lineker "immediately deleted the video after learning of the symbolic meaning."
“Whilst viewing and reposting a video, Gary did not notice a rodent emoticon added by the author of the post,” he added. “Although if he had, he would not have made any connection. The repost has been removed.”
Regardless, the event has sparked outrage among Jewish groups in the UK, The Telegraph noted.
The image of a rat accompanied a video in which Canadian-Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu attacked the IDF's actions in the Israel-Hamas War.
Campaign Against Antisemitism denounced the post on X/Twitter, stating "He must go."
Having looked the other way until now, at this point, it is clear that Gary Lineker’s continued association with the @BBC is untenable.He must go.Mr Lineker really has the worst luck when it comes to campaigning for his causes without aligning himself with extremists and… pic.twitter.com/0aYTtOlFHH
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) May 13, 2025
An earlier CAA post on X read, "Nothing to see here. Just Gary Lineker’s Instagram account sharing an anti-Israel video misrepresenting Zionism, complete with a rat emoji."
Nothing to see here.Just Gary Lineker’s Instagram account sharing an anti-Israel video misrepresenting Zionism, complete with a rat emoji. pic.twitter.com/ysuVGH52SN
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) May 12, 2025
“The BBC has allowed the situation with Gary Lineker to continue for far too long. He has caused great offence with this video – particularly with [its] egregious use of a rat emoji to illustrate Zionists. BBC should ask him to leave now rather than allowing him to dictate his own terms,” a spokesperson for the Board of Deputies of British Jews was quoted by The Telegraph as saying.
“Gary Lineker appears to have shared content about the Jewish state which echoes Nazi propaganda. This is utterly grim. The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, has a simple question to answer: does he tolerate the BBC’s flagship presenters sharing content that has historically been used as an antisemitic slur?” the former director of BBC television, Danny Cohen, told Telegraph Sport.
"For too long, Gary Lineker has been flagrantly abusing his position as the best-paid presenter at the BBC to promote his deeply biased views. Now he has gone too far, sharing material that, whether he knows it or not, is redolent of the vilest anti-Jewish racism. He cannot be allowed to stay in position, let alone be the face of World Cup coverage. The BBC must act now,” former Labour MP Lord Austin told Telegraph Sport.
“Gary Lineker has been sharing increasingly extreme content as his fixation has grown, and it was apparent that it was only a matter of time before he crossed the line," Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, was quoted by The Telegraph as saying.
“Sharing content that uses a rat to demonise the very idea of a Jewish nation state draws directly from Nazi propaganda. It is unfathomable that this is apparently ‘hateful conduct’ on X, but acceptable conduct for the BBC."
“Lineker made ill-judged comparisons with Germany in the 1930s to further his political point of view, but now he is sharing ideas about Jews popularised in 1930s Germany. When will enough disrepute be enough for the BBC? It’s time for Lineker to go,” he added.
Simon Myerson KC, chair of the Leeds Jewish Representative Council, questioned whether Lineker would "have the guts to explain this to [freed Gaza hostage] Emily Damari."
Who is Gary Lineker and what controversial statements has he made in the past?
Lineker has fronted the coverage for back-to-back World Cups, European Championships, and BBC Sports Personality of the Year shows. He has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years. Lineker is set to leave the BBC's flagship soccer program, Match of the Day, when the British soccer season concludes in the next few weeks. He earned £1.35 million in BBC pay last year.
The post comes shortly after Lineker, who is also the former England soccer captain, defended his right to express his opinions on issues such as Gaza in an interview with the BBC's Amol Rajan.
During the interview, Lineker said: "I know where I stand on this. I’m sorry. It’s more important than the BBC. What’s going on there is the mass murder of thousands of children [and] is probably something that we should have a little opinion on.”
Lineker has also previously appeared to remove social media content that caused outrage among the British Jewish community.
In January 2024, he removed a social media post calling for Israel to be banned from international football. He had retweeted a pro-Palestinian's call for Israel to be banned due to "grave violations of international law," but reportedly misunderstood the message and removed the post following a backlash from MPs who were angered by his “ill-informed” and “inappropriate” use of social media.
He also compared the then-Conservative government to acting in a way that was "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.” His suspension following this event caused a mass walkout from BBC Sport in protest, demanding he be reinstated.
