Reform UK chief Richard Tice has labelled Gary Lineker and Boris Johnson “clowns” - and claimed that individuals like them "talking nonsense and worrying people" are responsible for the UK's psychological well being disaster.

It comes as new evaluation reportedly exhibits that almost 4 million persons are being paid jobless advantages with out ever having to search for work, as a consequence of long-term well being circumstances. This follows a surge in profit claims for psychological well being throughout lockdown and the Covid pandemic, when face-to-face well being checks have been changed with distant assessments, official information exhibits.

Tice, 58, criticised the Match of the Day presenter for talking out on climate change, after Lineker claimed environmental activists could be remembered as “heroes”, regardless of disrupting folks’s each day lives. The former footballer was additionally handed a ‘sport and human rights’ award from Amnesty International, for his “staunch advocate for the rights of refugees and migrants”.

READ MORE: Gary Lineker brands BBC impartiality 'almost unresolvable'

Reform UK chief Richard Tice 

Tice was speaking to Dan Wootton on GB News and didn’t maintain again when giving his forthright views on the ex-England striker. He mentioned Lineker’s views on local weather change are akin to former prime minister Boris Johnson when he was “scaring folks with lockdowns".

“He has not a clue what he is talking about,” said Tice of Lineker. “The man is a clown.

“He’s not a great football commentator in my view and he’s got no idea what he’s talking about with regard to the climate debate. There is no climate crisis, there is no climate emergency, it’s absolutely absurd.

“They’re deliberately scaring young people, in the same way Boris Johnson scared people with lockdowns. Why do you think we’ve got a mental health crisis? Clowns like that talking nonsense and worrying people.”

Tice's comments come as climate scientists warned that failing to limit the global temperature to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels could trigger tipping points and lead to the collapse of life on Earth. Professors Johan Rockstrom and David King told the 'Opening the Innovation Zero Congress in London' yesterday (Wedneseday, May 24) that our current path will make vast areas around the tropics uninhabitable for humans.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that current climate policies will leave the Earth between 2.5C and 2.7C hotter by 2100 compared with pre-industrial levels. It has already warmed by 1.2C, with the World Meteorological Organisation warning there is a two-thirds chance of scientists recording a 1.5C temperature sometime in the next five years – although for now, only temporarily.

However, Tice's comments found some support on social media. 'Susan' wrote: “Very true. All we hear about nowadays is the ‘mental health’ crisis and yet we are bombarded by doom and gloom merchants and sanctimonious virtue signallers trying to make us feel guilty about everything, so it's hardly surprising.”

And CazB wrote: “If he knew what he was talking about it would be useful. Problem is, his fan base will listen and believe everything he says.”

But 'Netrocyn' appeared to suggest Tice was also guilty of "scaring" people. They said: "In which case Tice is contributing to the psychological well being disaster about immigration."

Tice has been very vocal about the migrant crisis and called for "zero tolerance" on "unlawful immigration". Writing in the Telegraph last month, he said: "In my view, the one 'Net Zero' the British folks really need is Net Zero immigration. Our small island is bursting on the seams, with among the highest inhabitants densities in Europe."