ulham fans trolled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this weekend as he watched his boyhood club Southampton get relegated.
The Saints will play in the Championship next season after a 2-0 drubbing at home to Fulham on Saturday sealed their fate.
And Fulham fans rubbed salt into the wound when they realised Sunak was in attendance, with the travelling supporters in full voice singing: “Rishi, what’s the score? Rishi, Rishi, what’s the score?”
Southampton fans responded by singing: “We’re going down.”
, but who do other politicians support?
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak (PA)
/ PA WireSouthampton FC
The prime minister was born in Southampton and has always supported the Saints. He has said that a season ticket given to him by his father when he was 18 is ‘’one of his most prized possessions’’. When once asked what line of work he would be in had he not entered the world of politics, he responded: ‘‘I’m a massive football fan, I’m from Southampton and if I would get to be able to run Southampton [I would do that].”
David Cameron
Aston Villa / West Ham depending on the day
Former Prime Minister David Cameron has made some gaffes in his time, but forgetting his football team was up there with one of the worst.
He has always said he is an Aston Villa fan but back in 2015, while giving a speech about his plan to increase opportunities for ethnic minority Britons, he said Great Britain was a place where you could support Manchester United, the West Indies cricket team, and Team GB all at the same time, before joking: “Of course, I’d rather you supported West Ham.”
The confusion arose as Cameron has never said he supports West Ham; instead, he had always claimed his favourite team was Aston Villa — who also play in claret and blue.
Cameron later admitted he had made a mistake and clarified that he had not changed his football team, in a chat with The Guardian, blaming the error on “brain fade”.
Gordon Brown
Raith Rovers
Another former prime minister, Gordon Brown, is Scottish and was brought up in Kirkcaldy. The local team is Raith Rovers, which the Labour man has stayed faithful to since the age of seven.
He is known as a passionate supporter and, in 2005, he even secured the club’s future by becoming a partial shareholder.
Keir Starmer
Arsenal
Keir Starmer is a massive lifelong Arsenal fan and even has a season ticket at the Emirates.
The Labour leader even used the 2021 Labour Party conference to take a dig at their North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur after they beat them.
He said about the lead-up to the conference to delegates: “This hasn’t always been an easy conference.
“Sunday was particularly nerve-racking, but then the results started coming through: Arsenal 3, Tottenham 1.”
Jeremy Hunt
Chelsea
The Chancellor revealed to the Evening Standard back in 2011 how he was affiliated with the West London club, which have had something of a drab season this year.
Hunt revealed he is a Chelsea diehard, confessing back then that he accepted it as “a little bit of a cliché for a Conservative (then) culture secretary!”.
He is now Chancellor of the Exchequer and is said to frequently watch the Blues, travelling from his Pimlico home.
Penny Mordaunt
Portsmouth
The Leader of the House of Commons and Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt has always made it clear who her favourite footy team is.
Despite boss PM Rishi Sunak being a superfan of nearest rivals Southampton, she has always let her love for Portsmouth FC be known.
On one occasion, the MP was even spotted mouthing the iconic chant “Play Up Pompey, Pompey Play Up” during Prime Minister’s Questions when PM Rishi Sunak was talking about his footballing allegiances.
Michael Gove
Queens Park Rangers
Despite being born in Aberdeen, Gove supports the side closest to his west London home, Queens Park Rangers.
And he isn’t afraid to show it, and can be seen regularly tweeting his support for the London club.
Matt Hancock
Newcastle United
Member of Parliament Matt Hancock was born in Chester, but his allegiances lie further afield from his birthplace.
He is an avid Newcastle United fan and is sure to be pleased with what the Geordies have achieved this season. He puts his love for the Magpies down to his Uncle Dave, who used to take him to matches from a young age.
He previously said: “That was in the era of Kevin Keegan, Alan Shearer, and the heady days when we got almost to the top of the table. It has its ups and downs being a Newcastle fan but it all stems from Uncle Dave.”
Liz Truss
Norwich City
The former PM is a fan of her local constituency club and has, in the past, tweeted her love for them.
In 2019, before their return to the top flight, Truss wrote: “Ignore the noise. Be brave. Exciting times.”
Ed Davey
Big Liverpool fan Ed Davey
/ PALiverpool
The Lib Dem leader is an avid Liverpool fan and can regularly be seen tweeting his support for the Scouse team in red.
He is bound to Tweet more in the coming weeks, as the team battle for a top-four spot with just two weeks left of the season. He also tweeted his support for the club joining the Premier League initiative of players taking the knee to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson (Ian Forsyth/PA)
/ PA Archive“All the London clubs”
The former PM has vowed that he “loves” the beautiful game but has never committed himself to one club.
When he was London mayor in 2015, Boris Johnson was asked about his football allegiance but gave a non-committal answer, not wanting to upset fans of any of the capital’s many clubs.
He told reporters he supported “all of the London teams”, refusing to name one, which all football supporters know is a cop-out of epic proportions.
