Rishi Sunak asks Gary Neville to commit to football after workers’ rights comments | strike

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Rishi Sunak has criticized football pundit Gary Neville for saying people should “hate low wages” and poor working conditions whether for migrant workers in Qatar or NHS staff in the UK.

The former Manchester United and England defender made the comments during ITV’s coverage of Sunday’s World Cup final in Qatar, saying the UK government was “demonizing” striking rail and health workers.

Speaking to the broadcasters during a visit to Latvia for a gathering of leaders from the Joint Expeditionary Force countries, the Prime Minister told the broadcasters: “I don’t think that’s true at all.”

He continued: “If you look at our track record and my track record, as a consultant I have always done everything I could to support our NHS and, indeed, the wonderful people who work in it.

“I grew up in an NHS family. I spent my life working in my mum’s pharmacy when I was younger. And if you look at what we’ve done during Covid, we’ve provided tremendous frontline support at a time when, when it comes to push, everyone else in the public sector has faced wage freeze.

Speaking earlier to the Daily Mail, which accompanied Sunak to Latvia, the Prime Minister said: “I think that when most people go on watching Gary Neville, they want to hear about football and watch football. They don’t want to discuss politics.”

Asked about Neville’s comments, Sunak’s spokesperson said: “It’s clearly not a legitimate or appropriate comparison in any way.”

Neville, who publicly supports the Labor Party, said: “We must hate low wages, we must hate shoddy housing and poor working conditions. This is something we can never accept in this or any area – and it is worth noting that we have a current government in our country that does appallingly vilifying railway workers, ambulance workers and nurses.

“People can’t be paid a pittance for work, and we can’t have people in abhorrent, disgusting accommodations.

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“This shouldn’t happen here [in Qatar] with existing wealth. But it shouldn’t happen in our country, where our nurses have to fight for an extra pound or two, too.”

Nurses are set to start a new layoff on Tuesday, with ambulance staff going on strike on Wednesday, amid a broader series of controversies in the public sector, primarily over falling wages in real terms, but also in some cases over working conditions.

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