Gary Lineker gives blunt response to Laurence Fox for lecturing his son on refugees

Gary Lineker got into a war of words with the outspoken Laurence Fox on Saturday when the latter tried to lecture the Match of the Day hosts son on 'privilege.'

The dispute kicked off after Lineker's son, George, quote retweeted a clip from The Reclaim Party, the fringe political party led by Fox and his deputy, former Brexit Party MEP, Martin Daubney.

In the clip, Daubney is asked if he will be taking in any refugees who have fled the country of Ukraine. He replies with a litany of reasons as to why he won't including that he can't afford it and that the refugees should be properly documented and have background criminality checks.

Daubney then ends the clip by challenging the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Gary Lineker and Yvette Cooper to accept refugees into their homes.

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Lineker, who welcome two refugees into his home last year, firstly responded to Daubney by saying: "You should probably have plucked out another name. I went first…and second…..and will continue to host. If any of you would like do the same, @RefugeesAtHome are amazing."

30-year-old George Lineker, later responded to the video telling Daubney to "Get your facts right fella."

However, Fox took exception to this and replied to the younger Lineker telling him to not "lecture hard working people on how to virtue signal."

The former actor wrote: "His facts are right “fella” Just because you, like me, grew up with all the privilege in the world, doesn’t mean you have the privilege to lecture hard working people on how to virtue signal. Leave that to your dad. He has a profile, at least. Jog on."

However, the older Lineker managed to fire back at Fox with a rather blunt response: "You should have done the same, and left it to your dad."

This is likely a dig at Fox's acting career given that his father, James Fox is a successful actor starring in acclaimed films such as Performance, The Servant, The Remains of the Day and Sexy Beast.

People loved Lineker's reply. One person wrote: "Speaking of family ties, his uncle played the lead in Day of The Jackal and today Laurence is playing the lead in Day of The Jackass."

Another said: "This is what you call a burn."

Sunderland goalkeeper coach David Preece simply replied with a Mortal Kombat 'finish him' gif.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

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