Gary Neville clashes with Tory MPs over workers’ rights in UK and Qatar

Government ‘demonising’ striking staff, says ITV pundit during World Cup final coverage

Gary Neville has been attacked by Tory MPs for comments condemning the government’s stance on strikes during a debate about workers’ rights in Qatar.

The ITV pundit accused Rishi Sunak’s government of “demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and nurses” during the channel’s World Cup 2022 final coverage.

But senior Tories said it was “grotesque” for the high-profile Labour backer to conflate workers rights in Qatar with the UK.

Discussing Qatar’s record on workers’ rights, Neville said: “It’s abhorrent and we should detest low pay.”

“We should detest poor accommodation and poor working conditions. And that is something that we can never ever accept, in this region or in any region,” he said.

The top pundit added: “And it is just worth mentioning that we’ve got a current government in our country who are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and, terrifyingly, nurses.”

The former Manchester Star said workers in Qatar should not have been paid an “absolute pittance” to help construct the World Cup stadia.

“That shouldn’t happen here with the wealth that exists – but it shouldn’t happen in our country where our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or an extra two pound,” he added.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith said he should have been cut off. “People have been killed on building sites and things all over Qatar and paid a pittance, and he compares that to the UK? It’s unbelievable,” said the former Tory leader.

Ex-Tory minister Simon Clarke said it was wrong to “overtly politicise” the final, adding that “to compare workers’ rights in Qatar with the UK is grotesque”.

Tory MP Lee Anderson said: “It’s a classic case of another champagne socialist who’s got more money than sense. ITV should sack him.”

The MP for Ashfield said on Twitter that ITV was “on my banned list now” and told Neville to “keep your nose out of politics. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Responding to the MP, Neville tweeted: “I’m glad you’re p****d off! The biggest set of charlatans to ever be in power!”

An ITV spokesman said: “Gary Neville was expressing his own personal views in the context of a discussion about treatment of workers in Qatar within a live broadcast. His views are his own and were not endorsed by ITV.”

The pundit was also accused of hypocrisy, given his work for the beIN Sports channel owned by a Qatari media group. Former No 10 chief of staff Nick Timothy “paid apologist for Qatar”.

However, many Twitter users praised the pundit for highlighting workers’ rights, with NHS, public sector and transport strikes over pay and conditions set to continue over Christmas.

Defending his decision to go on beIN, Neville recently told BBC’s Have I Got News For You: “You’ve got a choice – my view has been, you can highlight the issues and challenges in these countries and speak out about them, or basically you don’t say anything and don’t go.”