North Shields pub deletes Twitter account over ‘immigration’ response to Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer

The Spread Eagle pub, on Front Street in Preston, North Shields, removed its account after it disagreed with Alan Shearer’s decision not to appear on Match of the Day (MOTD) follwing the BBC‘s decision to suspend host Gary Lineker.

Lineker has been made to ‘step back’ from MOTD by the broadcaster following tweets he made over the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill after he compared it to “Germany in the 1930s”.

In response to the BBC suspending Lineker on Friday, March 10, Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer tweeted his support for his MOTD colleague - following in the footsteps of fellow pundit Ian Wright.

He said: “I have informed the BBC that I won’t be appearing on MOTD tomorrow night.”

Shearer was flooded with messages of support for his stance; however, The Spread Eagle pub was unhappy with the Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer.

The pub’s Twitter account, @SpreadEagleNE, posted in response: “So does that mean you’re happy in your ivory tower for us to be overrun with people from all over the world, shame on you.

“Tell Lineker he’s wrong, he kicked a football, he’s not a politician.”

As a result of the tweet, the North Shields pub received a hostile backlash from social media users, prompting the establishment to delete its entire Twitter account.

In a statement on Friday, the BBC said “We have said that we consider his recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines.

“The BBC has decided that he will step back from presenting MOTD until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media.

“We have never said that Gary should be an opinion free zone, or that he can’t have a view on issues that matter to him, but we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on political issues or political controversies.”

The BBC has had its sport programming impacted this weekend after a number of presenters and pundits pulled out of appearing on shows as they voice their solidarity to Gary Lineker.

NewcastleWorld has reached out to The Spread Eagle pub for a comment but was unable to get a response.

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