Politics

Gary Lineker slams Tory MP's 'dangerously provocative' Nazi comments

Gary Lineker slams Tory MP's 'dangerously provocative' Nazi comments
Gary Lineker to return to Match of the Day as BBC apologises
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Gary Lineker has called out a Tory MP for falsely claiming he called people "Nazis".

The former footballer and pundit was recently embroiled in a storm after he likened the government's language used to launch a new asylum policy to 1930s Germany.

He was suspended from the BBC for breaching impartiality rules but returned due to a sustained uproar that forced the broadcaster to change its mind.

It seemed to simmer down, for a few days at least...

But during an interview with Channel 4 News, Jonathan Gullis claimed Linker had called voters in the red wall "Nazis".

Speaking about the migration plans, he said: “[It’s] certainly tough and upset all the right people in the right places as far as I’m concerned.

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“Let’s be clear, when I talk about upsetting people I’m talking about the Twitterati, the Wokerati of North Islington, those champagne socialists who pontificate all day.

“Those are the people I don’t care upsetting, because those are the people who want to call people up here racist bigots, Nazis, like Gary Lineker has done.”

Reacting to a clip of the interview, a Twitter user said: “I don’t think Gary Lineker has actually directly called red wall voters ‘Nazis’ Mr Gullis.”

Lineker added that he never said such a thing and that Gullis's words were "dangerously provocative."

It comes after Lineker changed his Twitter profile picture to one of a George Orwell quote about free speech just a day after he and the BBC reached their temporary truce.

His profile on the social media site now features a photoshopped picture of himself standing next to the inscription: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

But not pretending they said things they didn't, Gullis...

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