British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has accused former England international footballer Gary Lineker of diminishing the tragedy of the Holocaust as ministers engaged in an open row with the BBC presenter over his criticism of their asylum plans.
ouse of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt accused UK Labour of “borrowing from the Gary Lineker playbook” by being the “party of goal hangers” taking easy shots against the government.
The former England striker hit back at her “clumsy analogy”, saying he was “just happy to have been better in the six yard box than you are at the dispatch box”.
The sports pundit has been at the centre of an impartiality row after criticising the British government’s “cruel” plans to tackle small boat crossings of the Channel. He also compared the language surrounding the immigration plans with 1930s Germany.
Ms Braverman said she found the comments “offensive” because her husband is Jewish.
“My children are therefore directly descendant from people who were murdered in gas chambers during the Holocaust, she told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast.
“To throw out those kind of flippant analogies diminishes the unspeakable tragedy that millions of people went through and I don’t think anything that is happening in the UK today can come close to what happened in the Holocaust. So I find it a lazy and unhelpful comparison.”
Addressing Mr Lineker’s comments, a No 10 spokesman said: “We think that kind of rhetoric is not acceptable... but beyond that it is for the BBC to deal with.”
Asked if Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was content for the presenter to host Match Of The Day tomorrow, the official said: “That’s a matter for the BBC.”
Mr Lineker said he looked forward to presenting Match Of The Day despite the “ridiculously out-of-proportion story” surrounding his comments.
Criticising the asylum plan earlier this week, he tweeted: “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.”
Yesterday, Ms Mordaunt used a House of Commons appearance to accuse Labour of borrowing from the “playbook” of Mr Lineker, who was a prolific goalscorer for club and country.
“They are a party of goal hangers and the occasional left-wing striker, hanging around the goalmouth, poised to seize any opportunities and to take an easy shot,” she said.
“But that only works if the ball is in the right half. This country doesn’t need goal hangers, it needs centre forwards.”
MPs will debate the Illegal Migration Bill on Monday.