Ian Botham rips into the Labour government, claims Covid-19 lockdowns were the result of 'scaremongering' - and tells anti-monarchists to 'p*** off'

England cricket legend Ian Botham has launched a scathing attack on the Labour government and given his thoughts on the state of the UK. 

Botham, 70 today, is one of the greatest players to ever represent his country, with the all-rounder playing 102 Test matches and 116 ODIs.

He was known for several game-changing performances with bat and ball and is a two-time Ashes winner, while England's triumph in 1981 was even dubbed as 'Botham's Ashes'.

After retiring, Botham - who also had a short football career at Yeovil and Scunthorpe - moved into the media and was a pundit on Sky Sports until recent years. He received a knighthood in 2007 and a peerage in 2020. 

In August 2021, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson even made him the UK's Trade Envoy to Australia.

And Botham, who has been a staunch Conservative throughout his life, clearly has no time for Keir Starmer's government. 

'If you rip up your manifesto almost as soon as you get elected, a lot of people will be angry,' Botham told The Telegraph. 'They need to get our country back on its feet. 

'At the moment, we’re just a golden ticket, with no due diligence done on most of the people who come in on the boats. 

'I think Reform will probably do very well at next year’s local elections. I’ve been a Conservative all my life, but I feel the Conservatives have got this horribly wrong.'

Botham also criticised the way Covid-19 was handled, suggesting lockdowns were introduced because of 'scaremongering' when people compared the virus to the 'bubonic plague'. 

The former all-rounder then defended the monarchy and said anti-monarchists should 'p*** off and go somewhere else if they don't like it'

He added: 'It wouldn’t have been that long ago that they would have been sent to the Tower to have their heads chopped off. The monarchy is one of our greatest exports. 

'People come from all over the world to see Windsor Castle, Sandringham, Buckingham Palace. This is our heritage, and we should protect it.'

Since his departure from Sky Sports in 2019, Botham has rarely been spotted in public. 

However, last summer he was seen at Wimbledon and spent time in the Royal Box where he received a rapturous reception.

Botham, nicknamed as 'Beefy', similarly runs his own charity, while he is currently the chairman of Durham County Cricket Club and also has a successful wine business.

He was in the news earlier this month when England skipper Ben Stokes labelled him a 'has-been' after Botham criticised their preparation for this winter's Ashes.

Botham had said that not playing state sides ahead of the tour, as the victorious teams of 1986-87 and 2010-11 did, was ‘bordering on arrogance’. 

He was joined in his criticism by former England captain Michael Vaughan who had argued the limited preparations of Stokes' side was a 'risky tactic'

But Stokes had retorted: ‘Cricket’s changed so much and preparation is nowhere near as simple as it used to be. You used to be able to come out on a tour a month-and-a-half, two months before the first game started.

'Now there’s so much cricket packed into the schedule it’s impossible to do it how it used to be done. But we’ve not been preparing for this tour not over the last three weeks, we’ve put a lot of thought and process into this for a few years now.'

Stokes continued: ‘So I don’t know what else we’re expected to do? There’s Sheffield Shield cricket on at the moment so who would we play against?

‘We’re about to go out and face a team who have got a mix between our squad and also the next best players in England.

‘So there’s a quite a few factors that play into the whole of why we can’t prepare how the has-beens maybe prepared in the past. The landscape of cricket has changed.

‘But we are very confident and very comfortable with how we prepare because we leave no stone unturned.’