Gary Lineker's shameful Zionist rat row shows BBC failed antisemitism test

Finally, the 's golden boy, , is leaving Britain's publicly-funded broadcaster - and his massive salary along with it. Just days ago, the same man who earned around £1,300,000 from the Beeb in 2023/24 shared antisemitic propaganda that would not have looked out of place in a 1930s Berlin newsstand.

, an online sewer masquerading as political analysis, claiming to "explain Zionism in under two minutes." And to do so, The Lobby deployed a rat emoji - a digital reworking of the most grotesque visual trope used by the Nazis to depict Jews as vermin.

To those who understand history, the message is unmistakable. The rat was not a metaphor. It was a mechanism of dehumanisation. The bridge from stereotype to slaughter.

The imagery of extermination, weaponised to desensitise a continent to genocide. And it was shared, to more than 1.2 million followers, by one of Britain's most recognisable public figures before he realised his idiocy and deleted the shared post. Too little too late?

Just imagine that the rat emoji had been used in reference to another minority. Imagine if Lineker had posted a caricature of a hijab-wearing woman, or a black Briton, or a refugee child, paired with that symbol.

Would the row about his BBC career have taken this long to conclude? You know the answer. Everyone does.

The double standard is as glaring as it is indefensible. Lineker is not ignorant. He is not naïve. He is deeply political - and proudly so.

He speaks regularly on matters of injustice, discrimination, and inequality. But when it comes to Jews, his radar fails him. Or perhaps, worse, he believes that "Zionism" - which, let us be clear, refers to the Jewish people's right to self-determination - is fair game. This thinking is not just wrong. It is dangerous.

Because antisemitism never announces itself with jackboots. It comes softly, through language. Through images. Through the casual degradation of a people's identity.

Through silence. That is why this matters. Not because we demand apologies. But because we demand standards. The same standards Jews are owed. The same standards other communities rightly receive.

Until today's statement, the BBC had remained silent. This statement falls five days after Lineker issued a frankly insufficient apology for his behaviour. Once again, this is too little. And too late.

It's not good enough from a corporation incessantly tearing itself apart over the accuracy of the word "terrorists" when applied to the Jew-murdering rapists of .

This wasn't Lineker's first - to put it very mildly - indiscretion. He's been embroiled in row after row about his position at the supposedly impartial BBC given his overtly political social media rants.

Which, incredibly ironically given his recent behaviour, included saying that Britain's asylum policies were like something out of the 1930s. How's that one aged, Gary?

Surely it should have been immediately clear to the BBC that this latest activity crossed a line? Apparently not. And let us not be distracted by the predictable defences. "He didn't notice the emoji."

"He deleted the post." "He meant no harm." None of these justifications would save anyone else from immediate sacking. Nor should they. Deleting a post does not undo the message. Claiming ignorance does not erase the pain caused. And intent does not negate effect.

It is 2025, and antisemitism is on the rise. Jews are assaulted on British streets. Synagogues are vandalised. Schools require security. The Met Police records record levels of anti-Jewish hate crime.

This has not been about cancelling Gary Lineker. This has been about telling the BBC that Jews are not invisible. That antisemitism is not a softer form of hate. That there is a line - and he crossed it.

The BBC has failed this test. It now falls to the public to remind it what integrity looks like.