Politics

Lee Anderson invites Gary Lineker to run against him in Ashfield

Lee Anderson has thrown down the gauntlet after Gary Lineker criticised the home secretary on X (formerly Twitter).

The deputy Conservative chairman said the Match of the Day host should consider running against him in Ashfield at the next election, given that Labour has yet to select a candidate in the constituency.

Lineker criticised Suella Braverman for calling pro-Palestine demonstrators a “hate march” and defending their right to protest this weekend.

He wrote: “Marching and calling for a ceasefire and peace so that more innocent children don’t get killed is not really the definition of a hate march.”

Anderson told the Express: “It looks like the BBC’s highest-paid publicly funded stars can continue to bite the hand that feeds them. Lineker is laughing all the way to the bank while attacking our Home Secretary.”

He added: “Maybe he should stand for parliament, I hear Ashfield Labour are looking for a candidate.”

Electoral Calculus data gives Labour a 65 per cent chance of winning the seat, with Anderson left languishing on just 17 per cent.

It’s worth a shot, right?

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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