Gary Lineker was singled out from a long list of BBC stars who express political views

From Alan Sugar and Karren Brady to Richard Osman and Nadiya Hussain, there is nothing new about TV presenters writing about politics

Gary Lineker's suspension for expressing political views set off an avalanche of comparisons with other BBC stars who have not been similarly sanctioned for lacking impartiality.

Some were obvious: Lord Sugar of The Apprentice, whose 18 years of firing people have been punctuated by political outbursts, from newspaper interviews calling on people to vote Conservative to tweeting a mocked-up image of Jeremy Corbyn sitting next to Adolf Hitler.