Senior Conservative backbencher has told BBC Radio 5 live’s
Anna Foster that England should pull out of the World Cup in
Russia and that he “will make his views known” to .
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live’s Anna Foster, said: “Nasty regimes
like to host these big sporting events as a great sort of
propaganda coup.
“It legitimises their regime and sport, the reason you’re getting
this wonderful reaction from your listeners about this issue is
because sport reaches way beyond politics, way beyond
international policy as a tool of propaganda. We must spoil
this tool for Putin on this occasion”.
Mr Jenkin added: “The irony is if we were talking about
apartheid South Africa, the left would be up in arms, they’d be
ripping up the pitches, and they’d be picketing. There’s a kind
of double standard here, why can’t we be consistent. Putin
practices a kind of apartheid in his own country, and it’s an
odious and poisonous regime, I’ve been to Moscow with the
defence committee, it’s a sinister atmosphere in a place where
there is no free speech, there is no proper democracy, there are
no proper free trade unions, there is no free press.”
The chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional
Affairs Committee says he will make his view known to and that if “we could act
internationally and in concert with other countries on this it
will be very good.”
