Fury as Gary Neville compares Qatar's migrant labourers to Britain's striking workers
19 December 2022, 08:01 | Updated: 19 December 2022, 08:02
Gary Neville has compared the conditions of migrant workers and labour abuses in Qatar to striking workers in Britain.
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The political ex-England player drew criticism after discussing the Government's treatment of people who work in rail and the NHS after mentioning the hated Kafala system in the Gulf state.
He had already been criticised for jetting to Qatar to work as a pundit while taking a left-wing stance on issues in Britain.
Mr Neville brought up the system of sponsorship that gave companies a high degree of control over their migrant labourers, which has led to awful working conditions in many instances and has been described as abusive.
The Labour supporter said during ITV's coverage of the World Cup final: "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 terrifyingly nurses.
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"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 an absolute pittance to work, we can't have people in accommodation that is unsavoury and disgusting. It shouldn't happen here.
"That shouldn't happen here with the wealth that exists.
"But it shouldn't happen with the nurses in our country either where our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or two pounds."
One Twitter user wrote: "Of course Gary Neville… made ridiculous and offensive comparisons between workers' rights in Qatar and Britain. This is a political broadcast from that hypocrite."
Another Twitter user said: "Had to switch World Cup over earlier due to Gary Neville's rant about the government.
"A champagne socialist there to talk about the World Cup. Thinks he's now a third-rate politician."
Another backed him, tweeting: "Gary Neville making some fair points here, avoiding signalling out the Middle East when workers rights are also under attack at home. Credit to him for that."
