People from Sussex made their voices heard today after it was announced that the BBC told host Gary Lineker to step back following his criticism of government asylum policy. The show will air on Saturday night without a studio presenter, pundits or its regular commentators. Sheila White, from Hastings believes that Lineker should have ‘kept his thoughts to himself’. She said: “Overpaid TV sports pundit, nobody cares what he thinks. He should keep his thoughts to himself and put a few of the unfortunate boat people up in his multi million pound mansions.” Bob Staples from Littlehampton, thought the punishment was not enough for Lineker. He said: “Him using his position and criticising the elected government is not acceptable. He should be sacked.” However, a number of residents believed that the punishment was unjust. Sarah JD from Shoreham said: “He has used his large platform for good. He didn’t call the Tories Nazis he called out the rhetoric used which is similar to Germany in the 30s. Words like invasion, illegals, breaking in to our country. He wasn’t talking about the war but the language used by the national socialists to spread hatred of non Aryan people as fascism rose in Europe. He is entitled to say that.” Mary Smith from Chichester said that she wouldn’t be watching Match of the Day following the news. She said: “I won't be watching. I enjoy MOTD and appreciate the analysis of the matches. However the BBC are politically motivated and have completely deflected attention from the issue that Gary was talking about. Shameful that the 'politically unbiased' BBC should fail so badly. So pleased that the other presenters are standing with Gary and freedom of speech. Love that so many people on these sites are using their freedom of speech to spew hatred for people they've never met but Gary standing up to that is vilified.”