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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Dave Burke

Foreign Secretary in fresh swipe at Gary Lineker as Tories refuse to let it go

Another Tory frontbencher has aimed a swipe at Gary Lineker as ministers refuse to let their spat with the football presenter go.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly suggested the World Cup golden boot holder needs to study "history books" after comparing language around the Government's asylum policy to 1930s Germany.

He is the latest in a long line of Tories to gripe at the Match of the Day presenter after he criticised the government's controversial Illegal Immigration Bill.

Mr Lineker likened the language to that of 1930s Germany - weeks after a Holocaust survivor confronted Suella Braverman making the same point.

This morning Mr Cleverly told LBC radio: "There are some people desperate to gain attention by using deeply offensive and inappropriate language about this and I would gently suggest they use their history books a little bit more carefully."

James Cleverly urged Mr Lineker to study history books (PA)

It comes after Ms Braverman accused former England striker Mr Lineker of diminishing the tragedy of the Holocaust.

She told the BBC Political Thinking podcast that the BBC star's comments were "offensive", telling listeners that her husband is Jewish.

"My children are therefore directly descendant from people who were murdered in gas chambers during the Holocaust," she said.

"To kind of 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 to make."

Commons leader Penny Mordaunt yesterday accused 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 6 yard box than you are at the dispatch box".

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has also lashed out at Mr Lineker (Leon Neal/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

The furore started when he tweeted "Good heavens, this is beyond awful," after the government unveiled its controversial Illegal Immigration Bill.

This will bar anyone who arrives by small boat from claiming asylum in the UK, and withdraws any protection under Modern Slavery laws.

Mr Lineker wrote: "There is no huge influx [of refugees]. 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."

The UN has called on MPs to throw the legislation out.

In January Joan Salter, 83, whose family were killed by the Nazis, confronted Ms Braverman at a constituency event to make this point.

She told the Home Secretary: "I am a child survivor of the Holocaust.

"In 1943, I was forced to flee my birthplace in Belgium and went across war-torn Europe and dangerous seas until I finally was able to come to the UK in 1947.

"When I hear you using words against refugees like 'swarms' and an 'invasion', I am reminded of the language used to dehumanise and justify the murder of my family and millions of others.

"Why do you find the need to use that kind of language?"

Ms Braverman continued: "I won't apologise for the language that I have used to demonstrate the scale of the problem.

"I see my job as being honest with the British people and honest for the British people.

"I'm not going to shy away from difficult truths nor am I going to conceal what is the reality that we are all watching."

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