He was predominantly a right-back in his footballing days, but ever since Gary Neville has taken up position on the left wing.
The ex-England and Manchester United defender is now facing a backlash – and ‘champagne socialist’ jibes – after lashing out at ‘angry middle-aged men’ putting up Union flags in the streets and revealing he had torn one down.
The former international was dubbed ‘Red Nev’ even during his playing career, a nickname inspired by his outspoken activism on behalf of team-mates – prompting comparisons to trade union bosses.
The millionaire Labour party member gets on well with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, having shared interview platforms with him several times – and previously criticised Tory ex-PMs Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, while also campaigning against Brexit.
Since retiring in 2011, however, Neville has also built a business empire worth an estimated £100million – including a lucrative series of property investments.
He is also paid £1.1million a year by Sky Sports as one of their star pundits, although the broadcaster is now facing threats from some commenters online to cancel their subscriptions in response to Neville’s latest remarks.
Neville has faced criticism before for his outspoken views as well as his business interests – facing calls of hypocrisy over the 2022 World Cup being staged in Qatar despite covering the tournament for a broadcaster owned by the Middle East state.
The latest furore comes after he filmed and shared online a complaint about Britons fastening St George’s and Union Jack flags to lampposts as part of the recent campaign known as ‘Operation Raise The Colours’.
Neville directed his ire at the nation’s flag-wavers 24 hours after two Jewish worshippers were killed in the Yom Kippur terror attack at a Manchester synagogue.
In his video, which he posted to LinkedIn on Friday, Neville said: ‘I just kept thinking as I was driving home last night that we’re all being turned on each other.
‘And 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 co-owner of League Two Salford City, who has built a sprawling property empire in Manchester since retiring from football, told how he ‘instantly’ took down a Union Jack flag that was fluttering near one of his building sites.
His comments came after the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation tragedy, where Syrian-born terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie launched a deadly knife and car rampage.
Neville began his video by saying: ‘Seeing the news last night and the news this morning dominated by the horrific attacks within the Jewish community, just a mile from here.’
He then switched his attention to the raising of flags – a movement called ‘Operation Raise the Colours’.
The ‘Operation Raise The Colours’ movement was co-founded by Andrew Currien, also known as Andy Saxon.
Mr Saxon, who has alleged links to the English Defence League and Britain First, is an ally of Tommy Robinson whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
The campaign has also accepted a donation of flags from Britain First, which has denied repeated accusations that it is a far-right and fascist organisation.
Neville continued: ‘When I was driving to Salford City last night, going down Littleton Road, I’ve seen probably 50 or 60 Union Jack flags.
‘And on the way back I went down the parallel road, Bury New Road, which has got the Jewish community right at its heart and they’re out on the streets, defiant, not hiding or in fear.
‘Funnily enough, on one of my development sites last week there was a Union Jack flag put up and I took it down instantly.’
Neville has often shared his opinions on political issues, such as saying people should ‘detest’ the working conditions for migrant workers in Qatar and condemning Boris Johnson for ‘fuelling’ racism during his time as Prime Minister.
His comments about Qatar attracted criticism, however – including mockery when he appeared as a guest presenter on BBC1 panel show Have I Got News For You.
Neville criticised poor working conditions and deaths of migrant employees building the competition infrastructure and the Middle East state’s human rights record.
Yet he faced accusations of hypocrisy since he travelled to the country for the tournament and covered it while working for Qatari broadcaster beIN SPORTS.
He defended himself at the time, insisting: ‘I don’t feel conflicted.
‘In the last few weeks that’s come under huge scrutiny. I accept that position because I’m there to be shot at, and people have criticised me heavily as well as our colleagues over on the BBC.
‘But the reality of it is, my view on it quite simply is that I detest workers’ rights abuses, I hate the idea of people not being paid enough money, working in poor conditions, the idea of people not having good accommodation – the women’s rights and human rights abuses. I can’t stand it.
‘But I also have relationships with people in this part of the world and have done for many many years. Those relationships are long standing in our country.
‘The fact that we buy most of our energy from the Middle East, that they own our banks, and the Royal Family have relationships with the Middle East – both sporting and charitable.
‘You think, our government and political parties have relationships with the Middle East – they own London Heathrow airport, they own the London Stock Exchange.
‘It’s football that’s brought the scrutiny – and football tournaments that have brought the scrutiny on issues that exist in these parts of the world.’
But he triggered further outrage at the time – including from then-Prime Minister Mr Sunak – when he likened the Conservative government’s treatment of nurses to the Qatari regime’s approach to migrant workers.
Speaking on ITV’s coverage of the 2022 World Cup final, he claimed conditions for striking nurses and railway workers in the UK were like those faced by Qatar’s huge foreign labour force.
Up to 6,500 migrant workers died in the 11 years spent preparing for the Qatar finals.
Mr Sunak hit back by saying: ‘I think when most people are tuning in to watch Gary Neville they want to hear about the football and watch the football – they don’t want to discuss politics.’
Neville refused to back down today, sharing a tweet about ‘cold-heart Tories putting lives at risk’ by not doing a strike deal with NHS staff.
Earlier that year Neville had announced he was joining the Labour party and shared a platform on stage in Liverpool with Sir Keir at their conference in September 2022.
And their pair appeared together in a Labour broadcast ad during last year’s general election campaign, taking a walk in the Lake District.
Asked by Neville whether he already had a team preparing for the prospect of him entering Downing Street, Sir Keir replied: ‘Yes.
‘I said, “I don’t want you having a conversation on day one, I need you to deliver for me, so you need to be ready to deliver from the get go” – so that’s the footing I’ve had them on.’
Neville said at the time: ‘It was a privilege to spend the morning with Keir filming this in the beautiful Lake District – he is a future Prime Minister who the country can believe in and trust.
‘It’s in your hands. You have the power to make change happen. Vote Labour.’
And he later leapt to the new PM’s defence when Arsenal supporter Sir Keir faced fury over accepting freebies including top-level football tickets.
Neville spoke out at a Labour conference fringe event in September last year, saying: ‘I’m struggling with the free football tickets one quite a bit, to be honest with you, when I look at the absolute corruption we’ve seen in the last five, six, seven, eight years with people getting billions of pounds worth of contracts in VIP lanes.
‘Keir Starmer’s paid for his season ticket to go with his family to watch Arsenal all his life.
‘And he’s now being told he can’t go to that same seat, when I’m sure he would – you know he would, everybody knows he would – he’s been told he’s got to go in a hospitality box, a private box.
‘To be fair, a lot of the people complaining about him will end up in those types of boxes themselves, including myself at times.
‘I find it absolutely incredible that this level of attention is now being paid to a Labour PM when I look at the absolute cronyism we watched for years under that lot.’
His criticism of previous Conservative governments including the time in Downing Street spent by Boris Johnson, with Neville having used ITV coverage of England’s Euro 2020 semi-final victory over Denmark to say: ‘The standards of leaders in this country in the last couple of years has been poor.’
He also prompted complaints in September 2022 when he branded the Conservatives ‘a cancer to the UK’ and accused then-PM Liz Truss of ‘taking the absolute mickey out of us’ by cutting taxes for the wealthy.
His latest video clip about flags also saw Neville wade back in on the issue of Brexit, telling viewers it ‘has had a devastating impact on this country and the messaging is getting extremely dangerous’.
He added: ‘All these idiots out there spreading hate speech and abuse in any form, we must stop promoting them.
‘We must stop elevating our voices towards them and it needs to stop now, and get back to a country of peace, love, harmony and become a team again.’
Neville has dismissed suggestions he is a ‘champagne socialist’ or ‘woke leftie’, describing himself as ‘a capitalist’ and ‘entrepreneurial businessman who likes to make a profit’ – and he appeared on business show Dragons’ Den in January 2024.
He has been investing in property after the economic crash in 2008, with business interests including hotels, restaurants, film production and eco schemes.
Neville’s LinkedIn profile states: ‘Gary co-owns a hospitality company, GG Hospitality, which has a portfolio of hotels and restaurants including Hotel Football and The Stock Exchange Hotel.
‘Gary is currently working on St Michael’s, a £200m development project in Manchester city centre.’
But he has also faced setbacks amid claims one of his high-end Manchester hotels, called Hotel Football, lost £3.2million over the pandemic and owed ‘£10million in loans’.
In quotes attached to official figures, Neville said trading had been ‘hit drastically’ by the pandemic and that Covid restrictions had ‘affected the financial figures.’
He added ‘challenges around inflation and the labour market continue up to this day,’ but ‘the directors have continued their policy of investing in the hotel to improve operational performance and to promote the Hotel Football brand even post the pandemic year.
‘The directors feel that whatever the case the quality of the brand and of the property they manage cannot be sacrificed.’
Neville has also faced scrutiny in the past for advertising for workers on minimum wage to staff his luxury Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester while it was charging more than £800 a night for a suite.
Critics of his latest remarks on flags have included Reform UK MP Lee Anderson, who labelled Neville ‘completely out of touch’.
The former Labour councillor and ex-Conservative MP added: ‘I believe in free speech but on this occasion just shut up.’
He told the former footballer: ‘You had no problem in playing in front of the England flag – and the middle-aged English men you talk about are the same type men that paid your wages.’
Nick Buckley, an award-winning charity boss who was sacked for criticising Black Lives Matter, wrote on X: ‘Gary is an a***. A Champaign [sic] socialist who through indoctrination seems to hate his country and citizens.’
And Reform UK’s Greater Lincolnshire mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns dubbed Neville ‘Gary Lineker Mark Two’ – a nod to the ex-England captain and former Match Of The Day host who has also faced a right-wing backlash for his political interventions.
But Neville has now been backed by a Government minister, with faith and communities minister Miatta Fahnbulleh hitting out at people ‘trying to stoke tension’.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I think he’s really right, that there are people who are trying to divide us at the moment.
‘We’ve seen this playbook before. Life is really tough for people across our communities. I spent a lot of time going around our communities, talking to people – people are ground down.
‘We’ve had a decade and a half in which living standards haven’t budged and people have seen their communities held down – and you will get people trying to stoke division, trying to blame others, trying to stoke tension.’
And Neville, who won 85 caps for the Three Lions including stepping in at times as captain, has hit back at taunts of being unpatriotic, saying: ‘I played for my country 85 times, I love my country.
‘I love Manchester and I love England, but I’ve been building in this city for 15 to 20 years and there’s no one put a Union Jack flag up in the last 15 to 20 years, so why do you have to put one up now?
‘Quite clearly it’s sending a message to everybody that there’s something you don’t like.
‘The Union Jack flag being used in a negative fashion is not right and I’m a proud supporter of England, Great Britain, of our country, and I’ll champion it anywhere in the world as one of the greatest places to live.
‘But I think we need to check ourselves, bring ourselves back to a neutral point, because we’re being pulled right and left and we don’t need to be, at all.’
Neville concluded his video by recalling his footballing memories at Old Trafford, where he shared a dressing room with British players as well as Africans, Asians, Americans and Europeans.
Gary Neville’s representatives and Sky Sports have been approached for comment.
