British former footballer and TV presenter Gary Lineker (62) posted several critical tweets about immigration policy in the United Kingdom. On Tuesday, the government unveiled a new plan to combat illegal migration. Lineker compares this to the situation in Nazi Germany.
The presenter of the BBC football program Match of the Day calls the new British policy “cruel”. He responded under a video in which Secretary of the Interior Suella Braverman (Conservative Party) proposed the controversial “Illegal Migration Bill” under the motto: “We must stop the boats.” The law should help solve the migration crisis. Migrants and refugees who enter the country illegally will no longer be able to apply for asylum and will be prohibited from returning to the UK at a later date.
Lineker responded on Twitter: “Good heavens, this is beyond horrible.” Then, when someone whistled him back for going too far, he defended himself: “There is not a huge influx. We take in far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy, aimed at the most vulnerable people, in a language not unlike the one used by Germany in the 1930s, and I’m out of my league?”
Several Conservative MPs are angry at Lineker’s criticism and are asking the BBC, for which he works, to do something about it. A spokesman said they would talk to him about it and “remind him of his responsibilities”.
This is not the first time that Lineker has criticized the decisions of a Conservative government or championed the rights of migrants. In addition to him, members of the opposition and human rights organizations are also questioning the new law.