Gary Lineker was praised by Good Morning Britain viewers after his appearance on Tuesday's episode (May 23) of the daytime programme. The sports broadcaster joined the last episode with Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley to discuss the return of his ITV gameshow Sitting on a Fortune.
However GMB presenter Richard was keen to talk about something else entirely, reports Liverpool Echo. It comes after former Everton forward Gary was suspended from MOTD following a tweet in which he criticised some of the language used by the UK government when describing vulnerable people who seek to claim asylum in this country.
A number of his colleagues boycotted the programme in solidarity, and Gary's suspension was lifted shortly afterwards. Some two months later, GMB's Richard told Gary he had been defending him, but then stated he had "compared the Government to Nazis".
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Gary quickly hit back and explained he had done no such thing. He said: "This is where the furor has come from, newspaper headlines. What I did was I said some of the language used was not dissimilar to that of 30s Germany." He added there was a "substantial difference" between when he actually said and what Richard was suggesting he said.
Eager to move on, Gary added that it was "water under the bridge", but Richard asked if they could "paddle in it a bit longer" before asking his guest to explicitly state what the Government had said to prompt his tweet.
Fans at home were impressed with how Gary handled the situation. Taking to Twitter, Charlotte said: "Gary Lineker schooling Richard Madeley is exactly what I needed this morning".
Natalie said: "Gary Lineker handled himself well there" and @FoodFunForest said: "Lineker is a king".
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