Rylan Clark and the hypocrisy of the right

When Gary Lineker voiced political views the right wing media disagreed with, he faced fire, fury and demands – eventually heeded by the BBC – that he should lose his job.

Lineker, however, restricted his politics to his social media output and not Match of the Day, which stuck to its traditional pursuit of football highlights. How would the same media react, though, when a public service broadcasting presenter voiced views more to their liking – actually live on air, on a morning show more used to cooking demonstrations, interviews with Emmerdale stars and round-ups of the best frocks to buy on the High Street?

A test came this week when reality star turned This Morning presenter Rylan Clark – who presents a popular Saturday show on the BBC’s Radio 2 – treated the nation’s housewives and hungover students to his views on asylum seekers coming to Britain’s shores.

Clark told viewers: “I find it absolutely insane that all these people – one, are risking their lives coming across the Channel like that [sic] they are, but, two, when they get here it does seem – which is I think a lot of Labour voters as well are now sitting there going ‘there’s something wrong here’.

“It seems ‘welcome, come on in’ – this is the narrative that we’re being fed – ‘here is the hotel, here’s the phones, here’s the iPad, here’s the NHS in reception of your hotel, here’s three meals a day, here’s a games room in the hotel, have a lovely time and welcome’, and then there’s people that have lived here all their life that are struggling.”

Quite apart from the fact that much of Clark’s rant is simply untrue – the Home Office does not provide mobile phones and iPads to new arrivals, and while it has a legal duty to provide basic support to destitute asylum seekers while their claims are processed their legal allowance is £9.95 a week per person if meals are provided – presumably, in the sake of balance, the media called for him to face the same treatment as Lineker? Er, no.

Suggested Reading

Jeremy Kyle shows Reform’s in his DNA

Rats in a Sack

“I’ve always been quite fond of Rylan Clark,” wrote the Spectator’s Gareth Roberts, in an article headlined “Rylan is a sign the immigration debate is shifting”. He continued: “In the stultifying bland and conformist world of daytime television, now dominated by the bien pensant opinions previously confined to the more elevated areas of programming, Rylan has always been a level above.”

(In a 2024 article titled “Farewell Gary Lineker, you won’t be missed” Roberts had written: “Is there to be no escape from politics, anywhere on television, even in the most innocuous sections of the schedule? Can you imagine back in the day tuning in to the BBC’s Pebble Mill at One to find Bob Wellings and Marian Foster gnashing their teeth about Ted Heath?”).

Under the headline “Why Rylan Clark could be Labour’s worst nightmare”, meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph’s George Chesterton praised Clark for his intervention, writing how “by highlighting Labour voters in this way, he may have made more impact and articulated the feelings of more people than a legion of north London-based podcasts hosted by former BBC thought leaders”. He added: “Rylan’s sheer reasonableness and working-class relatability make his opinions harder to write off as the rantings of a jingoist.”

(In a column a full three weeks ago about Gary Lineker hosting a new ITV game show, Chesterton wrote: “What ITV has on its hands is less ‘Mr Saturday Night’ and more a deeply divisive figure who is as likely to have viewers turning off as tuning in. So ITV’s celebrations might be short-lived, especially if it is unable to police his frequent public interventions on social media.”)

And over on Rupert Murdoch’s little-watched online channel Talk, Jeremy Kyle was praising Clark for his “impassioned” speech. (Back in 2023 Kyle was telling the same channel about Lineker: “You have an opinion about the migrant situation? That is your right. But if you are part of an organisation that says you should be impartial I’m struggling a little bit to see what makes him different from everybody else”).

In other words, public service broadcasters have the right to voice whatever views they want on TV – as long as we agree with them.