Gary Lineker insisted he tries to use his platform "for good" as he clashed with Richard Madeley while being quizzed about his controversial, political tweets from earlier this year.
Gary Lineker clashed with Richard Madeley during interview over his political tweets
The 'Match of the Day' presenter was asked to step back from the show in a row over impartiality in March - prompting a mass walk out of BBC pundits and presenters who stood by him - after he tweeted criticism of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s policy on refugees in March.
On Tuesday's (23.05.23) 'Good Morning Britain', Richard asked him how he now felt about one particular tweet in hindsight, but Gary hit back claiming Richard had "misrepresented" what he had said.
Speaking on 'GMB', he told the former 'This Morning' presenter: "I didn't compare the government to the Nazis. I was talking about some of the language that is not dissimilar.
"All I was trying to say is, we can use kinder language.
"People who are fleeing persecution awful circumstances all I was saying was that we could use kinder language."
The controversial tweet on March 7th came in response to a video message by home secretary Suella Braverman announcing her new Illegal Migration Bill, and in the video, she spoke about stopping people making "illegal journeys" crossing the Channel in boats.
Gary's tweet read: "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, and I’m out of order?"
What's more, during Tuesday's 'GMB interview, Gary insisted he tries to use his platform "for good".
He said: "I think I can, and I am, and I think it's really important if you've got a big platform to use it for good that's what I've always done and try to do. People who complain about this are often campaigners of free speech, you can't have it both ways."
In April, Gary told how he thought he had hosted his last 'Match of the Day' after the BBC decided he would "step back" from presenting the show until they had "an agreed and clear position on his use of social media".
Asked whether he thought he’d presented his last 'Match of the Day' at the time, he told Men’s Health UK: "I guess I must have, because when they said I had ‘stepped back’ and the row was raging, it was hard to see how it got resolved unless they backed down."
But Gary also insisted last month that his view was "factually accurate".
He added: "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."
Tagged in Alan Shearer Gary Lineker Richard Madeley