As the feud between Gary Lineker and The Sun over child refugees rumbles on, a new movement is attempting to troll the tabloid by voting for the presenter for an award it sponsors.
Lineker is nominated in the “best presenter” category in the National Television Awards to be held on 25th January.
The Sun is a partner for the event alongside eight others and quite a few people have used social media to urge people to vote for the former England player.
Lineker himself however, doesn’t seem as keen.
In his own words, he’s been taking a “spanking” on Twitter this week after calling out Tory MP David Davies’s call for dental checks to determine the age of child refugees coming into the UK from the “Jungle” camp in Calais.
His vocal intervention polarised Brits with some passionately supporting him while others questioned - usually in blunt terms - his right to an opinion.
Criticism peaked on Friday morning when The Sun’s front page led with calls for him to be fired from the BBC.
The Sun pounced on Lineker’s retweeting of a now discredited claim from a charity that one of the child refugees, whose age was questioned on Wednesday’s front pages was in fact an interpreter for the Home Office.
At the time, Lineker dismissed the error before thanking fans for support, something he did again on Friday night.
Davies has stood by his call for dental checks.
In an interview with the Guardian - in which he incorrectly states the government are already using the tests - he said: “Should I try to say, ‘If dental tests are causing an issue and the wrist test is accurate, let’s go with the wrist one’?
“I don’t really mind. I can’t really see the analogy with slavery or concentration camps – but if that is the main sticking point here, fine, let’s do wrists. I don’t mind me being tested, by the way.
“No, no, no. Bring it on. If someone thinks this is outrageous, well I’ll be the first to volunteer. Come and X-ray my wrist. Have a look at my teeth. People are saying this is a really intrusive thing to do – well, I don’t feel intruded upon. What’s the problem?”
Lineker succinctly responded to the interview in another tweet.
The comment came as LBC’s James O’Brien used a passionate speech on his radio programme to lend his support to Lineker.
“How can you be impartial about human suffering,” O’Brien asked.
“Here is someone, Gary Lineker, who thinks that humanity, human life, is valuable. And also believes that we, as a developed nation, have a responsibility to protect it. That’s one side of the argument.”