30 July 2023 , 21:29
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Gary Lineker says he is "very honoured" to have been named as one of the wokest celebrities in the UK, alongside actress Emma Watson, the Archbishop of Canterbury and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
The former England striker and BBC Match of the Day presenter was included on the Mail on Sunday's 'Woke List 2023'. The newspaper said the list highlighted celebrities who 'are most high-profile in their awakedness to perceived injustices in society - but who have also been accused of having an exaggerated fixation with such issues'.
And Lineker was included on the list after he compared the government's asylum policy to Nazi Germany in a tweet back in March. "Good heavens, this is beyond awful," 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 tweet led to him being removed from a Match of the Day broadcast, with the show ultimately airing without a presenter, pundits, commentators or even interviews as Lineker's colleagues stood by him.
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His suspension was lifted days later and Lineker has continued to present Match of the Day while remaining outspoken on social issues like immigration and climate change. As a result, he made the Mail on Sunday's 'Woke List' and was branded the 'mouthpiece of the metropolitan chattering classes'.
Lineker was quick to respond to his inclusion on social media, tweeting: "Very honoured to be on such a list. Thank you to this normally unpleasant newspaper for showing a degree of kindness."
Reflecting on his Match of the Day suspension, Lineker told Men's Health Magazine in April: "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.
"The BBC felt they had to do something. The thing is, when the new social media guidelines were brought in, I said fine, but we agreed I would not stop occasionally tweeting about two issues in particular: climate change and refugees. I wasn't prepared to back down on that, especially as I felt and still feel that what I tweeted was fair and true."