Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has hit back at Gary Neville after he slammed the government over nursing strikes - and urged the former Manchester United and England star to talk about football rather than politics.
Neville has been highly critical of the Conservative government in recent months and highlighted the industrial action that was taken by a host of nurses last week. The Royal College of Nursing has urged the government to implement a pay rise of five per cent above inflation and are set to take to the picket lines again in the coming days alongside rail and postal workers.
Prior to the World Cup final, Neville took the opportunity to call out Sunak and the UK government, as well as the regime in Qatar that staged the tournament, over low pay and poor working conditions.
Speaking on ITV Sport ahead of the final, Neville said: "The working system of Kafala which obviously through football the conversation has started and it's been removed here now in Qatar but it is abhorrent and we should detest low pay, we should detest poor accommodation and working conditions.
"We can never accept that in this region or any other region and it is just worth mentioning we've got a current government in our country that are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and terrifying nurses.
"In our country, we've got to look at workers' rights but when football goes, we have to pick up on workers' rights wherever it goes because people have got to be equal and treated equal. We can't have people being paid a pittance to work, in accommodation that is unsavoury.
"That shouldn't happen here with the wealth that exists, but it shouldn't happen in our own country that our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or two pounds either."
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Unsurprisingly, Sunak has fired back at Neville, urging the former right-back to stick to football. The PM told the Daily Mail : "I think when most people are tuning in to watch Gary Neville, they want to hear about the football and watch the football. They don't want to discuss politics.
"I come from an NHS family, I spent my life working in my mum's pharmacy growing up. My track record both as chancellor and PM is prioritising the NHS. During Covid, when there was a pay freeze in the rest of the public sector, the one area that got special treatment was the NHS. I did that as chancellor."
Neville became embroiled in a Twitter spat with Conservative MP Lee Anderson on Monday morning after the the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire urged Neville to keep his "nose out of politics" following his monologue on Sunday night.
But Neville hit back by tweeting: "I’m glad you’re p***** off! The biggest set of charlatans to ever be in power!"
