Is Sir Keir Starmer turning into Harold Wilson with his high-profile public support for Gareth Southgate’s boys in the final of the Euros?
“Have you ever noticed,” the wily Mr Wilson declared after Alf Ramsey’s heroes triumphed in 1966, “how we only win the World Cup under a Labour government?”
Barely a week after becoming prime minister, Sir Keir is attending the final of the Euros against Spain in Berlin after talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington.
He says he wants to “mark the occasion” if England win, prompting speculation about an extra bank holiday and an invitation to Downing Street for the team.
Back in ’66, Mr Wilson dashed back to London after talks with then US president Lyndon Johnson in Washington and then Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson in Ottawa to attend the final at Wembley.
“Wilson touched down at 1.10pm in time for the kick-off at 3pm,” Labour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds writes in his recent Harold Wilson biography.
“England’s famous 4-2 victory after extra time gave him one record that has still not been broken: that England only win the World Cup under a Labour government.”
Mr Wilson attended the official celebration banquet at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, and then hailed the team’s triumph at Prime Minister’s Questions a few days later.
Pic: PA
This time – for the Euros, not the World Cup, admittedly – Sir Keir has not only written to Southgate and the team wishing them luck in the final but also suggested “football’s coming home”.
“You don’t need a running commentary from a politician on what you should or shouldn’t do,” he wrote modestly.
That’s unlike Mr Wilson, who in the 1970s described his role as prime minister as “a deep-lying centre half”.
The 2024 players have made the country proud, Sir Keir told them, adding: “Whatever happens, you should know that you have united the country, and we are all behind you.”
Read more:
England eager to avenge defeat in previous Euros final, says Kane
Southgate wants Euros glory to bring ‘temporary happiness’ to ‘angry country’
Manager says final result will not dictate his future as England boss
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Are you looking forward to the Euros?’
Good luck letters from previous prime ministers
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak has also written a good luck letter, after an election campaign blunder when he asked Welsh voters if they were looking forward to the Euros when Wales failed to qualify.
Three years ago, when England also reached the finals of the Euros but lost to Italy on penalties, Boris Johnson wrote a good luck letter to Southgate and the team in his typical colourful prose.
“You have forged a band of brothers whose energy and tenacity and teamwork – and sheer flair – seem to shine in everything you do,” wrote the then prime minister. But England were gallant losers.
In 2018, Theresa May – a fan of cricket, not football – admitted she left the room during England’s World Cup penalty shoot-out against Colombia because she was too nervous to watch. Nothing has changed!
Jack Charlton holds the Jules Rimet trophy as he parades around Wembley following England’s 4-2 win in 1966. Pic: PA
What about other former prime ministers?
In 1996, the year of Southgate’s infamous semi-final penalty shoot-out miss against Germany at Euro ’96, John Major – another cricket fanatic – confidently declared ahead of the game that “football has certainly come home this summer”.
But within a year Mr Major was gone.
In Italia ’90, as England prepared to face West Germany in the final months of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, it was reported that a cabinet minister, after listing all the government’s woes, told her that “to cap it all”, England was “about to lose to Germany at our national game”.
It was claimed Mrs Thatcher’s response – notorious, but never denied – was swift.
“Well, we’ve beaten them at their national game twice this century,” it was widely reported. But by the end of 1990 she was gone.
‘Why did he take Charlton off?’
Until Sir Keir, who’s a genuine football fan, an Arsenal season ticket holder, and at 61 still regularly plays almost every week, no prime minister cared about football or international tournaments more than Mr Wilson.
Speaking of his early days as prime minister leading an inexperienced team, Mr Wilson claimed: “I’d take the penalties; I acted as goalkeeper; I went and took the corner-kicks; I dashed down the wing.”
But in 1970, four years after his euphoric basking in England’s World Cup-winning glory, Mr Wilson described his general defeat by Edward Heath on 18 June as “a relegation”.
And he blamed it on England’s World Cup 3-2 quarter final defeat by West Germany four days earlier on 14 June in the heat of Mexico after being 2-0 up.
Mr Wilson singled out manager Sir Alf Ramsey, who substituted Bobby Charlton with the score at 2-1 to England, for criticism, Nick Thomas-Symonds also writes in his biography.
“Why did he take Charlton off, Denis?” Mr Wilson challenged his sports minister Denis Howell, who was a former FA referee and was described by the legendary football commentator David Coleman as a “back page politician”.
But this time, if England win the Euros in 2024, as well as the clamour for a bank holiday there’ll also be enormous pressure for a second national leader who’s led his team to victory this year to be awarded a knighthood.