Gary Neville in Qatar/UK workers' rights row

Ex-England footballer Gary Neville has been criticised for comparing Qatari treatment of workers with the UK government’s actions.

Speaking as an ITV pundit ahead of the World Cup final, he accused ministers of “demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and terrifyingly, nurses”.

He said bad working conditions should not be accepted in Qatar or any region.

Senior Tory MP Simon Clarke said it was “grotesque” to compare the two countries’ treatments of workers.

“It is beyond ridiculous that Gary Neville is given free rein by ITV Sport to overtly politicise a major sporting event,” the former minister added.

Another Conservative MP, Lee Anderson, described Mr Neville’s comments as a “party political broadcast by a millionaire”.

“Looks like ITV is on my banned list now – talk about football Gary and keep your nose out of politics. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hitting back on Twitter, Mr Neville described the Conservatives as “the biggest set of charlatans to ever be in power”.

An ITV spokesman said: “Gary Neville was expressing his own personal views in the context of a discussion about treatment of workers in Qatar within a live broadcast. His views are his own and were not endorsed by ITV.”

Qatar has come under scrutiny for its treatment of the tens and thousands of migrant workers employed to build the stadiums and hotels ahead of the World Cup.

A 2021 report by campaign group Human Rights Watch said foreign workers were facing “months of unpaid wages for long hours of gruelling work”.

According to the International Labour Organisation, 50 foreign labourers died, more than 500 were injured while another 37,600 suffered mild injuries.

Asked about Qatar’s treatment of workers, Mr Neville said: “It’s abhorrent and we should detest low pay, detest low pay, poor accommodation and poor working conditions.

“That is something we can never ever accept in this region or in any region.

“It is just worth mentioning that we’ve got a current government in our country, who are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and terrifyingly, nurses.

“So in our country, we’ve got to look at workers’ rights but certainly where football goes now, we have to pick up on workers’ rights wherever we go because people have to be equally treated.

“We can’t have people being paid a pittance to work, we can’t have people in accommodation which is unsavoury and disgusting, we can’t have that. It shouldn’t happen with the wealth that exists and it shouldn’t happen in our country that our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or two pounds.”

In recent years, Mr Neville has become an outspoken critic of the Conservative government, describing former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a “calamity”.

He has also joined Labour and appeared at the party’s recent annual conference, but has ruled out becoming a politician himself.