[Jon]

That being said, I think that Gary should be able to express his views on social media as he presents sports coverage, not news. However, if the BBC are paying him £1.3m per year, then I don't think it would be unreasonable for them to impose restrictions on his social media usage if they wished to do so, providing it was explicitly stated in his contract.

If it was in his contract then fair enough, but the fee he earns is a different issue. 

Andrew Neil was basically a major face of the BBCs political coverage (and likely would still be if not for GB News). So to suggest it’s less appropriate for Lineker to give political views online is absurd. And I appreciate we’re dealing with hypotheticals here as Andrew Neil is not at the BBC at the present time. 

Bottom line is the BBC have handled it badly in a way that appears unfair and in the process has brought more attention to the Lineker situation and annoyed a lot of viewers by not giving them their regular sports output.