Gary Lineker has hit back at a Tory MP who falsely suggested the Match of the Day host called Red Wall voters “Nazis” and “racist bigots”.
The former footballer took to Twitter again to condemn comments made by Conservative Jonathan Gullis as “outrageous and dangerously provocative”.
During an interview with Channel 4 News, Gullis – who was elected to represent Stoke-on-Trent North in 2019 as the Tories swept away Labour in their heartlands – said he was not concerned with upsetting members of the “Twitterati”.
Speaking about prime minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial legislation cracking down on migrants, he said: “(It’s) certainly tough and upset all the right people in the right places as far as I’m concerned.
“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.”
Responding to the clip, another Twitter user wrote: “I don’t think Gary Lineker has actually directly called Red Wall voters ‘Nazis’ Mr Gullis.”
Lineker then replied, writing: “No he hasn’t and never would. This is outrageous and dangerously provocative.”
To be clear, Lineker was effectively suspended from the BBC for a tweet comparing the language used to launch a new government asylum seeker policy to that of 1930s Germany.
He commented on a video on Twitter put out by home secretary Suella Braverman, in which she unveiled government plans to stop migrant boats crossing the Channel.
He tweeted: “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.”
The former England striker then replied to a user who challenged him because it was “easy to pontificate when it doesn’t affect you”.
Lineker wrote: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries.
“This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”
There is no mention of voters in Red Wall areas or otherwise.
It comes after BBC director-general Tim Davie announced that Lineker would be returning to present Match Of The Day on Saturday.
Davie apologised for the recent impartiality row, sparked by one of the presenter’s previous tweets, and announced a review of social media guidelines at the broadcaster.
Lineker “will abide by the editorial guidelines” until a review of the BBC’s social media policy is complete, Davie said.
He was subsequently asked to “step back” from the popular football highlights show, prompting a boycott by his fellow MOTD pundits and commentators.
Since the row, Lineker has changed his Twitter profile picture to a photo of himself next to a George Orwell quote, which is written on the wall outside of the BBC.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,” the quote reads.