The BBC must show who is in charge by parting ways with “insolent” Gary Lineker, a former executive has said.

Lineker is “running rings around the BBC” with his social media posts and “it is both offensive and embarrassing to see”, according to Danny Cohen.

Mr Cohen, the BBC’s former director of television, said that Match of the Day would be “completely fine” without Lineker because people tune in for the Premier League highlights, not the analysis.

And he said there is a lot to be gained from letting Lineker go because it would restore public confidence that BBC management is in charge.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Cohen urged Tim Davie to follow the example set by Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager.

“If there were any signs that a player believed he was bigger than the club, Ferguson would quickly show him the door, even when it came to players of the world-class quality of David Beckham and Roy Keane,” he said.

“At the moment, Mr Lineker is behaving as if he is much bigger than his club - the BBC - with the insolent inference that there is nothing that his manager - the director-general - can or will do to stop him.”

‘Its management looks ever weaker’

Lineker’s tweets to Tory MPs Lee Anderson, Grant Shapps and Jonathan Gullis are “insults more suited to the school playground” and a clear breach of the BBC’s new social media guidelines, Mr Cohen said.

“If the BBC does nothing about it, its management looks ever weaker and ever less in control of the social media output of the people who represent it in the eyes of the public.”

Mr Cohen pointed to a recent social media post in which Mr Lineker shared an interview between “Jeremy Corbyn outrider Owen Jones” and an academic who accused Israel of “genocide”.

While some Jewish employees of the BBC were advised not to attend a march against antisemitism, Mr Cohen said, its most famous presenter was allowed “to encourage his followers to believe that Israel is guilty of genocide”.