The Conservative leadership frontrunner made the incendiary comments during a campaign hustings event in York. Mr Lineker is a prominent supporter of the ‘People’s Vote’ campaign, which is pushing for a second referendum on the UK’s EU membership. The BBC recently caused controversy by abandoning free TV licences for those aged over 75.

Speaking at the hustings Mr Johnson said: “The BBC should be coughing up for the TV licences for the over 75s.

“We give them the money, they should pay for it.”

Asked how this would be funded the leading Brexiteer commented: “Sack Lineker.”

Match of the Day host Gary Lineker earns between £1,750,000 and £1,755,000 making him one of the BBC’s highest paid stars.

In 2015 the Government announced the BBC would take over funding free TV licences for the over-75s.

According to the BBC this would have cost around £745million, a fifth of the corporations budget, by 2021/22.

It claimed continuing free TV licences would have let to “unprecedented closures”.

Mr Lineker is an outspoken critic of Brexit.

In July 2018 he called for a second referendum commenting: “I am not a politician but I know when something is going wrong and right now Brexit is going very wrong indeed.”

Mr Johnson is vying with foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt for leadership of the Conservative Party.

Both men claim they are the best candidate to ensure the UK leaves the EU by October 31 as planned.

They have both said they will renegotiate Theresa May’s Brexit deal to amend or remove the Northern Ireland backstop, though senior EU figures have rules out any substantial amendments.

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