Andrew Marr has said the row over Gary Lineker’s tweet about the government’s migrant crackdown shows the Tories are “weirdly obsessive” about the BBC.
The LBC presenter - who used to be the corporation’s political editor - said the Conservatives were using the Match of the Day host as “a new stick to beat it with”.
He said it was “time to start talking about something else” as the controversy rumbles on.
Lineker has come under fire from Tory MPs and ministers after he said the language being used by the government on immigration was like Germany in the 1930s.
The former England striker is due to hold talks with BBC chiefs over the row, but has insisted he will not stop speaking out on behalf of refugees.
On his LBC show last night, used a three-and-a-half minute monologue to take aim at both the BBC and the Conservatives.
Marr said: “The Conservatives, despite having one of their own in place as BBC chairman - Richard Sharp - remain weirdly obsessive about the corporation.
“They blame it for everything in much the same way that farmers look up and blame the weather. And in Gary Lineker they have a new stick to beat it with.”
The veteran broadcaster added: “What complicates all of this is that the BBC seems so keen to be beaten.
“With a masochistic enthusiasm you rarely find outside dungeons where the men wear gimp masks, the corporation has been leading its bulletins not on migration policy or anything else in the real world but on Gary Lineker. This is utterly mad.”
Marr said the BBC was “well and truly stuffed” because it can’t sack Lineker for bias because it’s chairman is a Tory.
“When there is nothing you can say, say nothing,” he said. “The best thing it can do is stop reporting its own misery with such bizarre enthusiasm.
“Now, let’s all of us, please, start talking about something else.”