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Broadcaster not backing down after comparing the UK's right-wing asylum policies to Nazi Germany [1]

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Date: 2023-03-08

In light of the Illegal Migration Bill proposed by UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, which will give the British government more power to criminalise and deport asylum seekers arriving from small boats on the English Channel, former association football player and BBC sports broadcaster Gary Lineker had to speak out.

x Good heavens, this is beyond awful. https://t.co/f0fTgWXBwp — Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023

But what really shook right-wingers is the fact that Lineker compared the rhetoric in regard to the government’s asylum policy to that of Nazi Germany’s.

x 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? — Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023

x Great to see the freedom of speech champions out in force this morning demanding silence from those with whom they disagree. 👊🏻 — Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2023

However, criticism of Lineker’s comments extends beyond the Daily Mail / GB News realm.

Earlier, Ms Braverman told BBC One's Breakfast she was "disappointed, obviously" in his comments. "I think it's unhelpful to compare our measures, which are lawful, proportionate and - indeed - compassionate, to 1930s Germany. "I also think that we are on the side of the British people here." Downing Street later said Lineker's criticism of the new asylum policy was "not acceptable". The prime minister's press secretary told reporters: "It's obviously disappointing to see someone whose salary is funded by hard-working British (licence fee) payers using that kind of rhetoric and seemingly dismissing their legitimate concerns that they have about small boats crossings and illegal migration." But beyond that, they added, "it's up to the BBC" and they would not comment further. A spokesman for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said comparisons with Germany in the 1930s "aren't always the best way to make" an argument.

And even though the BBC had a “frank conversation” with him, Lineker is not backing down.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/8/2156907/-Broadcaster-not-backing-down-after-comparing-the-UK-s-right-wing-asylum-policies-to-Nazi-Germany

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