Richard Madeley has defended Gary Lineker and free speech in the aftermath of his tweet comparing the administration to Nazi Germany.
The Match of the Day host attacked the Home Office for its divisive policy of preventing unauthorised boats carrying migrants from entering the Country.
‘This is just an enormously terrible policy geared against the most vulnerable individuals in language not unlike to that employed by Germany in the 1930s, and I’m out of order?’ wrote the 62-year-old.
The statements sparked a nationwide controversy, with Lineker subsequently dismissing the criticism as a “ridiculously exaggerated narrative.”
But, it does not appear like the speculation will abate anytime soon, with Lineker, who is allegedly not facing any disciplinary punishment from the BBC, being debated on Thursday’s Question Time.
The former Good Morning Britain host, 66, was on the panel of Fiona Bruce’s show, with immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
Through his social media site, Bruce, 58, asked the guests if Lineker should be’shown the red card’ by the Line of Duty broadcaster.
The former Richard & Judy presenter reacted with an emphatic ‘no,’ noting that he retained this stance after previously being chastised by Lineker on Twitter.
Lineker called Madeley’s interview with a Just Stop Oil protester “sickening” last year.
Madeley explained that Lineker’s stance on the policy was an example of ‘free speech.’
He continued: ‘Clearly if he was a political journalist, political presenter or interview in any of the areas of the BBC that we’re talking about, like Newsnight, then clearly he shouldn’t have made those comments.
‘Those comments would be a dereliction of duty and deeply compromising to his programme, to himself, future interviews and of course to the BBC which is publicly funded by us.
‘But he’s a sports presenter; he talks about football and games and tactics, and headers and corners and referees and league tables and all the rest of it.
‘And quite how having [not having the right to have] the freedom of speech on – not even on any of his programmes – but on his Twitter page, to say anything he likes within in the law, escapes me.’
The GMB host went on to label demands to’muzz and muffle’ Lineker ‘preposterous,’ adding, ‘It’s absurd to think he should be terminated.’
Madeley, on the other hand, called the comments’stupid,’ claiming that drawing parallels between the Nazi dictatorship and ‘the Conservative administration or any other government in Europe’ was disrespectful.
‘It’s an insult to the minorities and the Jewish nation who were subject to acts of genocide by the then German dictatorship,’ he said.
That comes as Lineker announced his comeback to MOTD on Saturday, while MPs will debate the Illegal Migration Bill on Monday.
If Parliament approves, anybody who crosses the Channel in a tiny boat would be prevented from ever returning to the UK and would only be eligible for refuge in a’safe’ third nation, such as Rwanda.
Detention of migrants would be permitted for 28 days without access to bail or judicial review, and thereafter forever as long as there is a “reasonable possibility” of expulsion.
Question Time is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Source My Celebrity Life.