Gary Lineker row leads to BBC chief Tim Davie showdown with Tory MPs next week

GB News: Lord Wolfson calls out Gary Lineker over Israel silence

BBC Director General Tim Davie has accepted an invitation to come to talk to Conservative MPs over increasing concerns that the national broadcaster is biased with an anti-Conservative, woke agenda.

The 1922 Committee, which represents all Conservative backbenchers, put out a request to Mr Davie some time ago and it is understood that it was issued around the time when Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker was comparing the Tory government to 1930s Nazi Germany.

But the meeting next Wednesday comes at a particularly sensitive moment with the BBC facing the prospect of being banned from Israel for appearing to report Hamas propaganda as factual news.

The Corporation incensed the Israelis and Conservative MPs at home by claiming that Israeli forces had blown up a hospital in Gaza when there was no evidence beyond allegations being put out by Hamas.

Tory MPs have also been at the forefront of criticising the BBC for refusing to call Hamas terrorists after they murdered more than 1,400 Israeli citizens including mutilating and burning to death babies and children.

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READ MORE Furious Israel warns BBC ‘could be banned’ over reporting of war with Hamas

Instead, the BBC has insisted on calling the “militants” or “fighters” even though they are a proscribed terrorist organisation.

Ofcom even stepped in to rebuff claims by the BBC that it was forced not to refer to groups as terrorists under the watchdog’s rules.

But a long shopping list of issues is likely to dominate what could be a tense meeting.

MPs are still angry that the BBC backed down and changed the rules to allow Lineker to use his platform as its top-paid star to launch attacks on Government policy.

There are ongoing concerns about the leftwing bias of the BBC and its refusal to question woke causes such as Net Zero.

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It also continues to give a platform to other left-wing influencers including former Countdown star Carol Vorderman who has a show on BBC Wales and is promoting a tactical voting campaign to get the Tories out.

There have been longstanding concerns over the way political coverage is hidden through so-called comedy shows with the BBC refusing to allow right-wing comedians on to programmes like Have I Got News for You and other so-called comedy platforms.

Newsnight also recently hosted a programme calling for a rival GB News to be taken completely off air over crude comments made about a female journalist by guest Laurence Fox.

But a week after Have I Got News for You gave Vorderman a platform to make identical comments about Fox in what many saw as an act of hypocrisy.

However, the biggest issue is likely to be around the future of the Licence Fee – or “TV tax” – which many Conservative MPs now want abolished and replaced with a subscription model.

Stoke North MP Jonathan Gullis told Express.co.uk: “I look forward to hopefully hearing Mr Davie outline how the BBC operates without relying on the licence fee. I admire him for being willing to be told to his face it’s time for the telly tax to go!”

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