As even football fans curse Starmer, the outlook is grim

The sound of England football fans chanting against Keir Starmer at Saturday night’s otherwise tedious match between England and Andorra is something that should be greatly worrying Labour strategists.

- DAVID MADDOX KATE DEVLIN

It is very rare that politicians become the subject of chants at matches, and when politics enters the discourse of sports fans, it is almost always a sign of a wider problem.

Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle’s suggestion that it is just “football chanting, part of the spirit of the game” does not really cut it as an answer.

A not-so-distant example of a backlash from fans sitting in a stadium was an early sign of a promising career on the way down. Back in 2012 at the Paralympic games in London, George Osborne was roundly booed in the Olympic Stadium as he was about to present medals to the winners of an event.

At that point, two years into the coalition government, after he had imposed harsh austerity measures to rebalance the UK finances after the banking collapse, Osborne had become a figure of hate. At the time, you could see on his face how souldestroying the experience was.

He would later admit to feeling “hurt” by what happened, but said it changed him as a chancellor. Notably, he never fulfilled his ambition of becoming prime minister.

Not many politicians end up in chants. You have to go back to former Tory culture secretary David Mellor in the 1990s, a passionate Chelsea fan, where the club’s supporters adapted their song “Carefree” after he was caught up in allegations about an affair.

It has not always been brutal.