Fatboy Slim praises Gary Lineker during Manchester gig

Fatboy Slim gave football pundit Gary Lineker a shoutout at a Manchester concert this week.

The former English captain was recently removed from BBC's Match of the Day after tweeting in opposition to England's new immigration policy.

The new bill, which UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently unpacked on his Twitter account, seeks to crack down on immigration by preventing those who come into the country illegal from claiming asylum, blocking undocumented immigrants from using modern slavery protections which provide support for victims of human trafficking.

In reality, the UK takes on some of the fewest amount of refugees and asylum seekers requesting international protection in Europe, and there is no such thing as "illegally" seeking asylum.

If you come to the UK illegally:

➡️ You can’t claim asylum

➡️ You can’t benefit from our modern slavery protections

➡️ You can’t make spurious human rights claims

➡️ You can’t stay pic.twitter.com/026oSvKoJZ

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) March 7, 2023

In response to the new policy, Lineker tweeted: "There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s."

Under pressure a number of right-wing commentators, the BBC temporarily removed Lineker from his pundit position, stating that "he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.”

This decision has received intensive backlash, including a response from Norman Cook, aka famed producer and DJ Fatboy Slim.

As part of the visual effects at his O2 Victoria Warehouse show, the performer was silhouetted by headshots of famous figures such as Prince and Greta Thunberg, before a shot of Gary Lineker was shown. Fatboy Slim then tweeted a video of the event, with the caption "Enough respect #ImWithGary."

Enough respect #ImWithGary @GaryLineker pic.twitter.com/fvQCLGtbdx

— Fatboy Slim (@FatboySlim) March 10, 2023

Following Lineker's removal, a number of pundits and commentators refused to appear on air in solidarity. Monday, BBC made the agreement to put Lineker back on air to ease tensions, but an Irish Times article reports that the dispute has weakened BBC senior management.