The BBC has announced that Gary Lineker will step back from presenting Match of the Day “until an agreement is reached on social media use”.

The former footballer found himself in hot water earlier this week when he tweeted that the language used around the UK’s immigration policy was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s.”

The £1.35 million a year BBC star was criticised this week by various public figures across the political spectrum.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was "disappointed" by the comments, while her opposition counterpart Yvette Cooper told LBC that he was "wrong to say that".

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, wrote in a Times op-ed: “However passionately we feel about important and pressing issues of the day, it seems to me that comparing those current concerns to the almost unimaginable horrors of the Nazi period is wrong.”

Holocaust survivor Agnes Grunwald-Spier MBE had said the Match of the Day host “should be ashamed” for his tweet.

In a statement, the BBC said it had been in "extensive discussions with Gary and team in recent days" and "has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we've got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media".

It continued: "When it comes to leading our football and sports coverage, Gary is second to none.

"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 party political issues or political controversies."