Former Manchester United player and now Sky Sports football pundit Gary Neville has attacked the Labour Party over their coronavirus stance.
In an interview on Sky with Sophy Ridge, Neville attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s abstention from the vote of the new tiers system proposed by the Conservative Party. Neville argued that the tiers system hurts the poorest in society and that Labour should have done more to get them support.
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During the vote on the tiers system, the majority of the Labour Party joined Sir Keir Starmer in abstaining, with only a handful of Labour MPs voting against the Government, including former party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The bill passed by 291 to 78, with 15 Labour MPs joining the majority of Conservative rebels.
In the interview, Gary Neville said: “When you’re elected and you’re in that seat in Westminster, you take a position. You don’t abstain.”
He then went on to give a football analogy: “You take part in the match – you’re the opposition, not sitting in the stand. They sat in the stand while the home team had a clear run. And even they didn’t have a clear run because some of their own players got sent off.”
In conclusion, he related back to his Manchester community and the impact that the tiers were having: “People are frustrated with lack of leadership in protecting residents of Manchester and communities hardest hit by this.”
He further said: “You cannot abstain and that’s where the people of Manchester, at this moment in time, I think are frustrated with the lack of leadership in, I suppose, protecting the residents of Manchester and the communities that are hardest hit.”
