The political journey of Gary Neville continues to delight and astound. The former England right back now finds himself on the left wing, having signed up to Keir Starmer’s Labour party in January. Amid speculation that the Red Devil is mulling a bid to be mayor of Greater Manchester, Neville used an interview with Sky last week to attack Boris Johnson’s ‘rancid’ government. He fulminated that the Prime Minister had ‘zero creditability in Europe and around the world’ and needs to leave No. 10 ‘the second after’ the war in Ukraine is over. Poor Gary could be waiting quite a while…
As part of his political awakening, Neville has been unveiling his prospective manifesto on Twitter to his 5.1 million followers. But other than ritual Tory-bashing, does he have an actual coherent ideology? For despite signing up to an avowedly social democratic party, it seems the former Valencia boss is something of a Thatcherite in disguise. According to Neville, one of the main arguments against Johnson’s government is that it is currently ‘hiking taxes to a post WW2 high’ – a criticism more often made by the free-market think-tanks of Westminster than card-carrying Labourites.
Indeed, the Taxpayers’ Alliance was so gladdened by Neville’s sudden embrace of fiscal conservatism that it has now invited him to become a registered supporter of their cause.
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