The former England boss said he believed a confidence vote in Theresa May was a plot to install a pro-Remain prime minister.
Sam Allardyce has followed Gary Lineker and Chris Waddle by wading into the Brexit debate, calling the Conservatives an “absolute disgrace” for failing to get behind Theresa May’s deal.
The former England manager said he believed the ballot was a plot to halt Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, despite the fact that it was Brexit-supporting MPs who are believed largely to have triggered the confidence vote in the Prime Minister on Wednesday.
Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT, Allardyce said: “Get ’em out. Get ’em out. They’re supposed to be representing us as the public. We voted for Brexit, we voted for it. We vote them in to look after us, not to look after their own agendas which they are doing now.
“Brexit was to be negotiated. Now they’re doing everything they possibly can not even to get… who has put a better Brexit deal in front of us? I’ve never seen one – have you?”
May faced a confidence vote on Wednesday after rebel Tory MPs unhappy with her handling of Brexit triggered a ballot by writing to the chairman of the 1922 Committee, made up of backbench Conservatives.
She saw off the challenge, winning by 200 votes to 117 in a secret ballot, but has nevertheless faced calls from the staunchly pro-Brexit European Research Group and its chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg to resign.
Theresa May survived a confidence vote triggered by rebel Tory MPs (Victoria Jones/PA)
Despite this, Allardyce, 64, said: “To me it looks like a coup to try and get her out, to try and get another referendum. For me, they got one ready to go in as prime minister and say, ‘We’re going to have another referendum’ so it’ll all be Remain this time round.
“It’s an absolute disgrace. Conservatives are a disgrace on what they’re doing at the moment, never mind what Labour are doing. The Conservatives, they should be ashamed of themselves and how they’re reacting on behalf of the public in this country. They are an absolute disgrace.”
Despite voicing pro-Brexit views, he criticised Rees-Mogg for calling for May’s resignation.
“He’s the first one out for me,” Allardyce said. “You wouldn’t like to have him sat alongside you hoping you were going to get some support, would you?”
Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg departs after speaking to the media outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, after Prime Minister Theresa May survived an attempt by Tory MPs to oust her with a vote of no confidence.
Allardyce, who said he has switched between supporting Labour and the Conservatives during his life, also criticised the state of politics generally, saying: “At the moment there is nobody in any parliament I would want to vote for that would look after my rights in this country.”
The former Bolton and Newcastle manager is not the only high-profile character from the world of football voicing pro-Brexit views as members of England’s 1990 World Cup squad discussed the issue on Twitter.
Ex-England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, England’s all-time leading appearance maker, said he was “so impressed” with Rees-Mogg, adding: “He really knows what he is talking about and puts it across in a calm and calculated manner!”
Waddle, in a tweet he subsequently deleted, said: “Well done Theresa May,now let’s leave Brexit with no deal we will be fine.”
They were countered by Shilton’s long-time England room-mate Gary Lineker, who joked that “you should never see a tweet from your heroes”, and told Waddle, in a nod to the responses he himself receives when he voices his political views, that he should “stick to football”.
Their old England team-mate Peter Reid also chipped in, replying to Shilton’s Rees-Mogg tweet: “I’ll agree to disagree on that one Goalie. He’s loopy, doesn’t know his arse from his elbow.”
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s leading presidential candidate repeatedly touted the social programs of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and walked a fine line between supporting the national oil company and promising a clean energy transition in the second debate Sunday night ahead of the June 2 election.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum of the president’s Morena party continues to hold a healthy lead over Xóchitl Gálvez of a coalition of opposition of parties and Jorge Álvarez Máynez of the small Citizen Movement party.
López Obrador significantly raised Mexico’s minimum wage and increased spending on social programs, most of which are popular direct cash transfer programs. Sheinbaum has benefitted from her mentor’s popularity throughout the campaign and promised to continue his programs.
She called the model of government that he started and she has committed to continuing “humanist, an honest model, protector of our patrimony, with better salaries, with better pensions, without raising taxes.”
Even Gálvez, Sheinbaum’s most serious competitor, stressed that she, too, would maintain the popular, but costly programs if elected. The former senator and tech entrepreneur reminded voters that she knew poverty growing up and was able advance in part because of a scholarship.
“I am a woman who comes from below, who knows poverty and knows how poverty hurts and the time that it steals from you,” Gálvez said.
Álvarez Máynez, a former congressman, promoted his own initiatives to reduce Mexicans’ work week from six to five days, provide paternity leave and increase vacation. He said that despite the social spending of the current administration, young children receive a fraction of what they should because “they don’t vote.”
On the environment and climate change, Sheinbaum, a climate scientist, pointed to her efforts as mayor, such as putting solar panels on the rooftops of Mexico City’s sprawling wholesale market and adding more electric buses and bike lanes.
As president, she said, she would work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help Mexico adapt to climate change. But she also defended López Obrador’s construction of a huge new oil refinery that she said would help Mexico reduce its gasoline imports. She warned that Gálvez would try to privatize the deeply indebted state oil company, known as Pemex.
Gálvez said the private sector would be critical in Mexico’s clean energy transition. She added that Mexico was losing foreign investment opportunities because foreign companies require access to clean electricity produced with renewables. She promised to make Pemex an efficient company, something successive administrations from various parties have failed to do.
Álvarez Máynez said that Mexico remains overly dependent on fossil fuels and that the country’s future is in wind and solar power. He promised to put solar panels on all schools and health centers.
Gálvez once again was the aggressor in the debate, trying repeatedly to paint Sheinbaum as untrustworthy. This time she took to holding up a variety of placards while Sheinbaum spoke calling her a liar. Sheinbaum, in turn, took to calling Gálvez “the corrupt one.”
All three candidates said major changes are needed to address Mexico’s fresh water supply, hit hard in much of the country by a prolonged drought. Their plans combined the need for reusing water, the majority of which goes to irrigation, and improving water system infrastructure.
FILE - Rep. Jorge Álvarez Máynez greets supporters after he was nominated by the Citizen's Movement party to run for president in the upcoming general elections, Jan. 10, 2024, in Mexico City. Mexico's second presidential debate on Sunday, April 28, a little more than a month before the elections, measured the economic, employment and poverty proposals of the ruling Claudia Sheinbaum and opponents Xóchitl Gálvez and Maynez. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
FILE - This combination of two file photos shows Xochitl Galvez, left, arriving to register her name as a presidential candidate on July 4, 2023, in Mexico City, and Claudia Sheinbaum, right, at an event that presented her as her party's presidential nominee on Sept. 6, 2023, in Mexico City. The two women, considered the frontrunners in Mexico's presidential election, discussed social spending and climate change in the race's second debate Sunday, April 28, 2024, which also included Jorge Álvarez Máynez. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
