Now Gary Lineker gloats that BBC bosses 'backed down and admitted being wrong' for booting him off air over 'Nazi' tweet - as star reignites asylum row by calling his smear 'factually accurate'
- Lineker insisted he was 'factually accurate' in his tweet about the Government
Gloating Gary Lineker has sensationally reignited the asylum row that saw him taken off air by the BBC.
The Match Of The Day presenter told Men's Health UK that corporation bosses 'admitted they had got it wrong', as he also defended his extraordinary comments comparing the Government to the Nazis in an interview with former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell.
He repeated his claim that the 'language' in the debate over the Government's Rwanda refugee policy 'reminds us of the debate in Germany in the 1930s', adding: 'I think that is factually accurate.'
Lineker, 62, also said that, after he was first suspended over his incendiary tweets, he found it 'hard to see how it got resolved unless they backed down'. The corporation's highest-paid star, who earns £1.35million a year, had described Suella Braverman's Illegal Migration Bill as 'immeasurably cruel'.
Reflecting on BBC director-general Tim Davie's decision to reinstate him after fellow pundits boycotted Match Of The Day, Lineker told Campbell: 'To be fair to Tim Davie, he admitted they had got it wrong and sorted it out.'
Gary Lineker has insisted he was being 'factually accurate' when he compared the language in the Government's 'cruel' asylum policy to that used in 1930s Germany
The presenter also argued that he 'wasn't abusive' and did not call Home Secretary Suella Braverman a Nazi. He instead reiterated that he was criticising the language used in her immigration policy
Gary Lineker was speaking to Men's Health UK 'Talking Heads' columnist, Alastair Campbell, in an interview available on the magazine's website now
The interview, published in Men's Health magazine, risks enveloping the BBC in a fresh row over how they supposedly 'backed down'.
'I have three rules,' he told Alastair Campbell. 'I never tweet if I've been drinking, I never tweet if I'm angry, and I always read the tweet back before hitting send.
'If I have 1% of doubt, I don't post it.'
He said: 'When I sent that tweet, it honestly never even crossed my mind that it would lead to where it went. I've worked with refugees' charities for years. So, when I saw the Suella Braverman film, I said I thought it was pretty awful.
'Then the 'stick to football' people weighed in and I replied to one of them, just saying there was no massive influx, the UK takes far fewer refugees than other European countries, this is a cruel policy, and the language used in the debate reminds us of the debate in Germany in the 1930s.
'I think that is factually accurate.'
Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson last night blasted the former footballer for his 'woke nonsense'. 'The only thing Tim Davie has got wrong in this instance is keeping Lineker in a job at the BBC,' he told the Mail.
Mr Lineker has now said that he stands by his tweet and would not have published it if he even had '1 per cent of doubt' that his claim was inaccurate
Nadine Dorries, former culture secretary, added: 'I am sure he came to some sort of agreement with the BBC after his tweets, and he's basically reneged on both the spirit and possibly the substance of whatever arrangement they came to. He is supposed to be a role model but he's chosen to reignite this whole issue just to try and get the last word.'
And Tory MP Sir John Hayes said: 'Gary Lineker has a habit of making stupid comments. Sadly he seems to have become totally disconnected from the thoughts of ordinary people in his privileged position.'
In the interview, Lineker said: 'I've worked with refugees' charities for years. So, when I saw the Suella Braverman film, I said I thought it was pretty awful. Then the 'stick to football' people weighed in and I replied to one of them... this is a cruel policy, and the language used in the debate reminds us of the debate in Germany in the 1930s.'
He added: 'I wasn't abusive, I wasn't saying she [Braverman] was a Nazi. I talked about the use of words like 'invasion' and 'swarms' and 'criminals' and 'rapists', which I think we should be very careful about.'
Lineker previously spoke about the issue on Campbell's podcast with former Tory MP Rory Stewart, The Rest Is Politics: Leading, which is produced by Lineker's own Goalhanger Podcasts company.
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