𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Tory Sir James Cleverly has accused former football star  Gary Neville of promoting division and segregation, after Mr Neville attacked “angry white men”. Sir James, the Shadow Communities Secretary, said: “He’s basically doing the things he’s accusing others of doing. He’s compartmentalizing, segregating and then blaming.”

He made the comments after Labour-backing Mr Neville, who was captain of Manchester United before becoming a manager and pundit, claimed the UK public is “being turned on each other”, in a video posted on social media. The ex-footballer said: “The division that’s being created is absolutely disgusting. Mainly created by angry middle-aged white men who know exactly what they’re doing.”

The sports star, who is now involved in property development, said: “Funnily enough on one of my development sites last week there was a Union Jack flag put up and I took it down instantly.”

Sir James said: “There’s very little Gary Neville says or writes that I agree with.”

Speaking at a fringe event during the Conservative conference, the former Home Secretary said racism had become worse in the UK in recent years and laid the blame at “well-intentioned” left-wingers who created “real friction.”

The Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, following the murder in the US of George Floyd by a police officer, helped import American-style identity politics into the UK, he said.

The MP added: “The left were amplifying someone else’s problems and then wondering why that was creating such social division here in the UK. I think if I’m being generous, I’ll say it was naive, because the alternative is that it was cynical.”

Sir James, a former Home Secretary, was one of a number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds to hold senior positions in the last government, but said Labour MPs preferred to ignore their success in order to insist the UK was a racist country.

“You have Labour front benches amplifying those divisions, making it sound as if you know being black in the UK was an automatic death sentence, when actually on our side of the House, you had people of non-British heritage.”

He said: “I do fear that we’re going to get real splits in the country, and I don’t want that. And I also fear that there are some bad faith actors who are seeking to take advantage of division for short term political reasons, and I completely reject that.”

The senior Tory also expressed concern about Labour’s plan to “define” Islamophobia, saying it had “all the hallmarks of potential blasphemy law through the back door”.