Gary Lineker has claimed he is free to tweet about refugees and climate change as part of a deal with the BBC.

The Match of the Day presenter believed he had a deal with director-general Tim Davie allowing him to comment on refugees, but his comparison of Suella Braveman’s rhetoric on small boats to that heard in "Germany in the 30s” saw him taken off air amid an impartiality row with executives.

Lineker has now claimed he also agreed a deal with Mr Davie which could leave him free to share his views on refugees and climate change, without being in breach of BBC rules on being non-partisan.

He said: "When I first met Tim Davie when he first brought in his guidelines, we had a discussion and I said to Tim 'there are two things that I'll continue to talk up on, that I will not back down on'.

"And he agreed. One of them was about the refugee crisis and the other one was about climate change. I put this in that category."

'Arrangements' for freelance presenters

The Telegraph revealed amid the impartiality row that freelance presenters working for the BBC enjoy "arrangements" allowing them to share political views without breaching impartiality rules, depending on how closely associated they are with the corporation.

It was understood that in Lineker’s case, as a weekly presenter for much of the year, he was too close to the broadcaster to stray from these rules, although the former striker himself believed his comments would be allowed.

Speaking on the Rest Is Politics podcast, which is produced by his own Goalhanger media company, Lineker said that he never “contemplated it would be an issue at all”, to tweet about the government’s small boats policy, and has stood by the tweet which sparked the row with the BBC.

He said that his first reaction to the outrage about his comments was "really 'hang on a minute, I've not been abusive to anyone. I've not said anything particularly controversial'. I think it was factual".

He added: "I'm not saying at all our policies echo those of Germany, but sometimes some of the language is not dissimilar."

Lineker 'relieved' about the row

Lineker believed his tweet to be so innocuous that he was shocked to find the source of a scandal, and relieved that the row only concerned his online comments.

He said of the beginning of the row: "I wake up in the morning, looked at my phone. It's got 237 WhatsApp messages. I've gone 'Oh my God, what's happened?'

"And I've really had really worried thoughts for a few seconds because I couldn't think what it could possibly be.

"And I thought either it's some kind of scandal or has something happened to one of my kids.

On finding out that the row was about his comments regarding the Home Secretary's small boats policy, he added:  “"It didn't bother me, I was ok. And it kind of spiralled sillily out of control."

Lineker has spoken of being moved by the repose of his colleagues, including Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, who refused to go ahead with a Match of the Day show after he was taken off air.