Smarmy Lineker loved to tweak the noses of his BBC bosses by making political statements and then claiming he wasn't covered by BBC impartiality rules. This dropped the BBC right in it and they had to change the rules because of him, I doubt that went down too well.
Anyway he still continued to walk a very narrow line and I think the BBC rightly had enough of his "I'm bigger than the BBC" attitude.
This last tweet was the straw that broke the camels back. I do think it was a genuine mistake by him but previously he had lectured the public that it should know the history (referring to Israel and Palestine). Now of course he had to apologise because he didn't know about the symbolism of the Rat so not so smart or smarmy after all.
As for the free speech argument and being cancelled I agree but all the while the BBC takes taxpayers money they have to have these rules.
I expect Lineker will show up on LBC or some form of talk radio free to spout his political beliefs and probably like Lawrence Fox will discover that straying outside your area of expertise can make you look very foolish indeed.
Supposedly lots of TV companies are queuing up for his service, perhaps in the football world. He had a go as a game show host on ITV and failed mainly because the public thought he was very uninteresting.
It's a big leap from sports presenter to light entertainer.
