Gary Lineker uses scathing football analogy to shut down 'clumsy' Penny Mordaunt

Gary Lineker has hit back at Penny Mordaunt after she used a bizarre analogy to accuse Labour of "borrowing from the Gary Lineker playbook" regarding plans to stop small boat Channel crossings.

In her speech, Mordaunt said: "They are a party of goal-hangers and the occasional left-wing striker. Hanging around the goalmouth, poised to seize any opportunities and take an easy shot.

"But that only works if the ball is in the right half. This country doesn’t need goal-hangers, it needs centre forwards.

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"It needs people who put in the hard work, take tough decisions, grip a problem and work out how to solve it and create those opportunities - and that is what we are doing."

The football pundit took no time in responding, by thanking the cabinet minister for mentioning him in her "clumsy analogy."

He continued: "I’m just happy to have been better in the 6 yard box than you are at the dispatch box. Best wishes."

It all comes after Lineker weighed in on a video posted on Twitter by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, where she spoke about the government's new Illegal Migration Bill that plans to ban people arriving via illegal routes from claiming asylum in the UK.

Lineker called it "beyond awful," before comparing the language used to being "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s".

"There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries," Lineker tweeted.

Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson later described Lineker's comments as "virtue signalling nonsense."

"This is just another example of how out of touch these overpaid stars are with the voting public. Instead of lecturing, Mr Lineker should stick to reading out the football scores and flogging crisps," he wrote on Twitter.

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