Gary Lineker blasts Tory MPs for ‘outrageous’ Nazi allegation comments

Gary Lineker has fired back at a Conservative MP who falsely claimed the BBC presenter had labeled so-called ‘Red Wall’ voters in the North and Midlands as ‘Nazis’ and ‘racist zealots’.

Jonathan Gullis, Tory MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, said Rishi Sunak’s planned crackdown on small boats had “upset all the right people in the right places”.

The far-right told Channel 4 News: “Let’s be clear, when I speak of upsetting people, I’m talking about the Twitterati, the Wokerati of North Islington – those champagne socialists who preach all day.”

Mr Gullis added: “These are the people I don’t want to upset because these are the people who want to call people here racist bigots, Nazis – like Gary Lineker did.”

Responding to a clip of the interview, a Twitter user said, “I don’t think Gary Lineker actually directly called Red Wall voters ‘Nazis,’ Mr. Gullis.”

Lineker then responded himself, tweeting: “No he didn’t and never would. This is outrageous and dangerously provocative.”

The game of the day star made a splash last week when he said the rhetoric the government used to launch its law on illegal migration was like Germany in the 1930s.

He was reinstated on Monday and did not apologize for his tweet comparing the government’s language to 1930s Germany – immediately tweeting about the plight of the refugees again when announcing his return.

Football pundit Ian Wright said managers at the BBC caused a “hot mess” over the weekend after begging Linker to retire game of the day.

Wright – one of the company’s moderators and reporters, who bids farewell to Lineker – said the dispute was a “perfect distraction from what really matters.”

He added: “For me, they made a hot mess. I’m telling you this is all from the top, I can’t blame my husband (Head of BBC TV Sport) Philip Bernie, the BBC Sports team. All of this is done via a tweet.”

Mr Lineker appeared to taunt BBC bosses just a day after he and the BBC reached a temporary truce with a new Twitter image of a quote from George Orwell on free speech.

His profile on the social media site now features a photoshopped image of himself alongside the caption, “If freedom means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.”

On Tuesday, Labor Culture Secretary Lucy Powell accused Tory ministers and MPs of orchestrating a “demolition campaign” in which Lineker deposed – and likening her to Vladimir Putin’s regime.

But Tory culture secretary Julia Lopez fired back – arguing that any comparison to Moscow’s authoritarian regime was “disgraceful” and “perverse”.

Ofcom’s chief executive has said trust in the BBC is at stake as it reviews its social media policies to resolve the linker controversy.

Melanie Dawes said the impartiality dispute went “straight to the heart of the BBC’s broader reputation, beyond its news and current affairs coverage”.

It comes as more than 300 academic migration experts have signed a joint letter to the government to object to Britain’s illegal immigration law, arguing that the policy is not “evidence-based, workable or legal under human rights law”.

The scientists’ letter, published online on Wednesday, said: “There is no evidence, known to us as experts in the field, that suggests deterrence-based approaches are effective”.

The group pointed to Australia, where its government’s attempt to deter boat arrivals by making arrests offshore had failed to “stop the boats” or dismantle people smuggling networks.

Instead, the “Pacific solution” has resulted in “huge financial costs” for Australian taxpayers, violations of fundamental norms of international law and numerous legal challenges.

The Independent understands that Tory moderates are debating how best to change the law in the next phase – with a focus on creating stronger safeguards for child incarceration and modern slavery.

However, right-wing Tory MPs are also understood to be preparing plans to further tighten the bill with an amendment to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).