Former ITN chief John Hardie will head the BBC’s review into its social media policy in the wake of the Gary Lineker impartiality row, it has been announced.

The corporation said the review will start immediately and is likely to be completed by the summer.

It comes after Lineker was temporarily taken off air by the BBC earlier this month after posting a tweet which compared the government’s language on immigration to that used in 1930s Germany.

He was reinstated days later following a boycott of a string of sports shows, including the BBC’s flagship Match Of The Day programme, by fellow presenters, pundits and commentators in solidarity.

Mr Hardie, who served as broadcaster ITN’s former chief executive and editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2018, has been asked to recommend new social media guidelines for BBC staff which are “clear, proportionate and appropriate”.

It comes after BBC director-general Tim Davie admitted there were “grey areas” in the corporation’s rules and said “confusion” about its policy needed to be cleared up, particularly for freelance staff like Lineker.

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