Gary Lineker has hit back at a Tory MP who wrongly claimed the Match of the Day presenter had called so-called “red wall” voters in the north and Midlands “Nazis” and “racist bigots”.
Jonathan Gullis, Tory MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, said Rishi Sunak’s planned small boats crackdown had “upset all the right people in the right places”.
He told Channel 4 News: “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.”
Mr Gullis added: “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, Twitter user Simon Harris said: “I don’t think Gary Lineker has actually directly called red wall voters ‘Nazis’ Mr Gullis.”
Lineker then replied himself, tweeting: “No he hasn’t and never would. This is outrageous and dangerously provocative.”
It follows outrage within the Conservative ranks at the BBC’s climbdown over Mr Lineker, which saw the corporation apologise and reinstate the presenter to Match of the Day.
