Rishi Sunak, tenant of the 10 Downing Street since it replaced Liz Truss As head of the British government just five months ago, he took it for granted that his latest move to tackle illegal immigration, traditional obsession of the conservative ranks that Brexit has failed to stop, was going to be controversial. But what neither he nor his interior minister Suella Braverman they expected is that the measure was going to have a television and football derivative that can end up taking the bbc domeand who knows if even the law itself.
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At the moment, it has already cost the former footballer his job Gary Lineker, presenter of the popular sports program on the public channel ‘Match of the day’ until this past Thursday, the day the public channel decided to remove him the red card for having compared the immigration policy of the conservative executive with that of the Nazi regime.
As if it were one of those television vaudeville that the BBC used to bill in the 80s, the mess has not stopped growing in recent hours. The matter has many keys and variablesand an outcome that at the moment seems uncertain.
The law that lit the fuse
Shouting “That’s enough, we have to stop the boats,” the Minister of the Interior, daughter of African immigrantsannounced last Tuesday, March 7, a new law to try to stop the arrival of boats loaded with immigrants to the English coasts through the English Channel. In 2022, up to 45,000 people arrived in this way on British soil.
The problem is old, but the measures contemplated in the new law are unprecedented and, in the opinion of many, inappropriate for a western country that respects Human Rights, since denies political asylum people who enter the country through this route, regardless of their situation, and proposes the immediate deportation of these migrants to states like Rwanda, considered “safe country & rdquor; by the ‘tory’ executive.
In addition, the new regulation will prohibit these people from applying for political asylum in the future and its application will have retroactive effects, so it could be applied to immigrants already in the UK and that they arrived at the island in a boat.
Lineker, the minister and Nazi Germany
The Conservative Executive’s bill immediately provoked a wave of criticism, but the most notorious was that of the former English footballer Gary Linekerwhich has been presenting the popular sports space for 24 years ‘Match of the Day’ from the BBC. Through his Twitter account, the athlete crossed out the measure of “horrible and cruel & rdquor ;, recalled that the United Kingdom receives each year far fewer immigrants than other European countries and compared the migration policy promoted by the new Minister of the Interior with “the one used by Germany in the 1930s & rdquor;. To make matters worse, it so happens that Suella Braverman’s husband is Jewish.
Conservatives ask for the footballer’s head
The allusion to the Nazis stung in the tory rows, who did not take long to make him ugly on the networks and through public statements. MP Jonathan Gullis warned him: “His job consists of talking about football, not politics.“. Lee Anderson, vice president of the Conservative Party, formation that has Lineker in his sights since he showed his opposition to Brexit, he reminded him that he should limit himself to giving the results of the parties “and promote fries”, in reference to one of his sponsors. Even the Minister of the Interior herself crossed out her comments of “irresponsible & rdquor; and demanded that he moderate his language, reminding him that he worked in a public channel.
The allusion to his status as familiar BBC face It is not trivial, since the station obliges its presenters by contract to refrain from commenting government affairs that are outside their scope of work. Appealing to this commitment, the conservative deputy craig mackinlay He suggested The dismissal of the former soccer player
Lineker to the street: the big mess is armed
The scuffle ended up jumping into the air on Friday, 48 hours after the footballer’s already famous tweet, when the BBC announced its immediate dismissal in charge of the program that he has been presenting since 1999. The measure, understood by many analysts and viewers as a “inadmissible transfer” of the public channel to the pressures of the conservative party and the Government, provoked an avalanche of reproaches against the BBC in the networks and a rebellion of several of its most popular figures, as well as former footballers and commentators Ian Wright and Allan ShearerLineker’s co-stars, who announced his withdrawal of the program in solidarity with his partner.
The BBC, in the spotlight
What began on Tuesday with a debatable immigration lawfive days later it has become a reputation crisis of the BBC of unforeseeable consequences. The decision to remove Lineker from his program, idol of masses among the British, has ended up becoming against the direction of the public network, traditionally praised for its impartiality and independencebut which is now accused of operating at the orders of the Government.
Labour’s Economy spokesperson, Rachel Reevescrossed out the expulsion of the footballer from “disproportionate measure & rdquor; and former BBC director, Greg DykeI consider it “a mistake & rdquor; that has damaged the credibility of the chain.
The controversy has risen so much in tone that the Prime Minister himself, Rishi Sunak has had to intervene to warn that the future of the presenter “It is a matter of the BBC & rdquor ;, and not from the government.
Far from diminishing, the litigation grows by the hour and now it points to the director of the station, Tim Daviewho has had to apologize to the viewers, to whom he has promised an agreement that allows the return of Lineker to your television space. The manager has confirmed that, at least for now, rule out resign.
Should it occur, its fall would be the last piece that a law would be charged that still has to be discussed in the British Parliament, and the last episode of a political-television vaudeville which is far from resolved at this time.