Inside Politics: No 10 joins ‘roars of outrage’ against European Super League

Downing Street is looking at various tactics to block the despised breakaway league, writes Adam Forrest

(REUTERS)

“The socialism I believe in … is a way of living,” said Liverpool FC legend Bill Shankly. “Everyone having a share of the rewards. It’s the way I see football and the way I see life.” The European Super League plan has shaken everything we thought we knew about football – and politics too. Boris Johnson, not exactly loved on Merseyside, finds himself on the same page as the Liverpool supporters’ union, Spirit of Shankly. The PM says our football clubs are much more than “global brands”. So Labour, the Tories, the royal family (William hates it too) are united in disgust. Strange days.

Inside the bubble

Senior political commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for today:

Football will dominate the day again, with Boris Johnson chairing an urgent meeting on the big six clubs’ plan for a breakaway league. The PM will hold another Covid press conference later. Look out for a Commons statement from equalities minister Kemi Badenoch around 1.20pm on the race report, following some very harsh criticism from an arm of the UN.

Daily briefing

YOU’RE GONNA HEAR US ROAR: Boris Johnson will hold a meeting of senior football officials and fans’ groups later to discuss what to do about the European Super League. Is the government serious about trying to stop it? It certainly seems to be. Launching a fan-led review, culture secretary Oliver Dowden said he joined the “roars of outrage” and said ministers will “do everything” to prevent the despised breakaway from happening. Johnson sounded less adamant, saying the government would try to “make sure that this doesn’t go ahead in the way that it’s currently being proposed”. Keir Starmer said the elite plot “cuts across all the things that make football great”. The Arsenal-supporting Labour leader added: “It diminishes competition. It pulls up the drawbridge. But worst of all, it ignores the fans.” Incidentally, former No 10 press chief Katie Perrior – comms boss under Theresa May – is leading publicity for the new league. She has the job of selling us the most hated thing in the world ever.

WOULD HE LIE TO YOU? Six opposition parties are calling for an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s “consistent failure to be honest” in parliament. They are calling on the Speaker to allow a vote into holding a probe the Tory leader’s rather consistent tendency to mislead. It comes after a video by lawyer Peter Stefanovic fact-checking claims made by the PM was watched millions of times. “There is a normalisation of lying to the House which is deeply dangerous,” said Green MP Caroline Lucas, who organised the letter to the Speaker. On Monday the PM said the review into “double jobbing” had found little untoward going on. He said it would be wrong to “form the impression that the upper echelons of the British civil service have got loads of people who are double-hatting, doing two jobs – it just isn’t true”. It comes as the chair of the public administration committee said its probe would look beyond David Cameron into the “revolving door” culture – and could recommend tougher rules.

PINT OF BITTERNESS: Keir Starmer has dusted himself off after he got thrown out of a pub in Bath by a very shouty landlord. “Get out of my pub! Go on get out of my pub!!!” screamed Rod Humphris, going the full Barbara Windsor in EastEnders. Humphris, co-owner of The Raven, was furious about the Labour leader’s acquiescence with government lockdowns – complaining that the economy had been sacrificed just “because old people are dying”. He also fumed at Starmer outside the pub, clutching a dodgy-looking graph of deaths. Starmer responded by saying: “I really don’t need lectures from you about this pandemic.” Meanwhile, Labour will attempt to lecture the government on climate change. Boris Johnson is set to announce that commitments on carbon reduction will become law. The PM will say emissions will be cut by 78 per cent by 2035. But Labour said ministers had to match “rhetoric with reality”. And a group of 100 climate experts have written to the PM, urging him to come with a plan to make commitments happen.

NO PASSAGE TO INDIA: So Boris Johnson’s big trip to India is off. The PM said it was “only sensible” to cancel, given the rise in Covid cases. Johnson said he and his counterpart Narendra Modi had agreed it wasn’t the best time to travel, setting up an online chat instead. India has finally been added to the been the UK’s “red list” of toughest travel restrictions. Matt Hancock said the “difficult but vital decision” came after the number of confirmed cases of the Indian variant in the UK rose to 103 – with some people catching it in this country. But Labour said this Friday change in status was happening weeks too late, after it emerged that thousands of people had arrived from India since the new variant emerged (around 900 arrivals a day). Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said it was “not good enough to try and shut the door after the horse has bolted”.

MISSING YOU ALREADY: Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has made a rather desperate appeal to Labour and Lib Dem supporters to vote Tory to stop the SNP. Ross said only his party has the “strength across the country” to stop Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for inyref2. His colleague Matt Hancock went on the attack in the Commons – demanding to know what has happened to the “missing millions” meant for the NHS in Scotland. Asked if he would match the SNP’s commitment to boost health spending by 20 per cent, the health secretary responded: “What’s happened to the money for the NHS in Scotland that was given to the SNP government in Holyrood? They have not spent it on the NHS.” It comes as health experts warned Brexit could prevent medicines to treat cancer, diabetes and epilepsy from reaching Northern Ireland. Firms making non-branded drugs are already starting to withdraw them because of red tape, said the British Generic Manufacturers Association.

NO RACISM HERE: No 10 has insisted that the government’s Race Commission report “in no way condones racist behaviour”, after an arm of the UN condemned the “shocking” report ordered by Boris Johnson. Experts from the UN Human Rights Council said they had found it “stunning” to find a report on race that “repackages racist tropes and stereotypes into fact, twisting data and misapplying statistics and studies”. They added: “This attempt to normalise white supremacy despite considerable research and evidence of institutional racism.” Downing Street claimed UN body simply “misrepresents the findings” of the report. Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, equalities minister, will appear in the Commons today to defend the work of the commission. According to The Telegraph she will reveal that death threats have been made against some commission members.

On the record

“We will do everything it takes to protect our national game. These clubs have decided to put money ahead of fans.”

Oliver Dowden comes out fighting against the big six.

From the Twitterati

“Jeremy Corbyn went on the campaign trail and got hugged by adoring fans. Keith Starmer goes on the campaign trail and gets into a fight with a pub landlord. See the difference?”

RD Hale says pub landlords would fall and kiss the feet of Saint Jezza wherever he roamed…

“Instinctive anti-Starmer nonsense on here is now almost beyond parody. Leader of the opposition is accosted by an anti-lockdown thug, conducts himself in a dignified way … The response: STARMER SELF-OWNED AGAIN.”

…but Ian Dunt is having none of it.

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: Just like Brexit, the European Super League is built on hubris

Caroline Lucas, The Independent: It’s time to call Boris Johnson out for failing to be honest in parliament

Robert Peston, ITV News: Can Boris Johnson really block the European Super League?

Neal Ascherson, The Guardian: Is time running out for the union as case grows for a new Scottish independence vote?

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