BBC Question Time host Fiona Bruce was tonight forced to apologise after an audience member dropped the F-word. The moment unfolded during a discussion about the row over Gary Lineker’s Twitter post comparing the Government to Nazi Germany with its new laws to tackle small boats carrying migrants across the Channel.
The audience member said: “If anything we need more people like Gary Lineker to speak the truth to the power.
“The comparison to the Second World War is perfectly fine because the human rights convention was created after our experiences then.”
The BBC went on to cut the audio as the man continued saying his piece.
Ms Bruce then said: “Obviously I’m going to have to apologise for the use of the F-word but you made your point with passion.”
The audience member later heckled immigration minister Robert Jenrick as he branded Mr Lineker’s comments “completely unacceptable”.
Mr Jenrick said: “In honesty, I don’t really care what Gary Lineker says, I care about what the British public think.
“The British public are sick of the boats and they want to see the Government taking action.
“It’s not for me to dictate what the BBC does but I would say this that language does matter, all of the panelists agree on that, we should try to de-escalate this issue generally.
“What Gary Lineker said was completely unacceptable, there’s absolutely no comparison between trying to take action on this important issue and what happened in Germany in the 1930s. That was a shallow comparison.
“My children are the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and I don’t think people should bandy around comparisons with 1930s Germany.
“I think that’s a mistake, we should have more intelligent dialogue than that.
“Gary Lineker was completely wrong with what he said. I’m not going to ask the BBC to sack him but he should choose his words much more carefully.”
The Match of the Day host has been at the centre of a BBC impartiality row after criticising the Government’s “cruel” plans to curb migrant Channel crossings.
The controversy erupted on Tuesday when Mr Lineker responded to a video on Twitter in which Home Secretary Suella Braverman Braverman discussed the Illegal Migration Bill.
He wrote: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries.
“This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s.”
But the BBC’s highest-paid star has refused to back down over the tweet despite calls for him to be sacked.
Taking to Twitter earlier, the 62-year-old said he looked forward to presenting his show this weekend.
