Inside Politics: Keir Starmer pushes new ownership model for football

The Labour leader hailed the ‘fantastic’ withdrawal of England’s big six from the hated European Super League – but wants fan power to go further, writes Adam Forrest

Labour leader Keir Starmer (Getty Images)

Power to the people! Those lovely left-wing Chelsea fans appear to have helped halt the European Super League. Supporters blocked the team coach’s entry to Stamford Bridge last night, before the club became the first to signal it was pulling out the despised project – now on the brink of collapse. The meltdown remains the biggest political story in town. Boris Johnson will be delighted if the end of the league is confirmed today, after promising fans he would “drop a legislative bomb” to stop it. Keir Starmer wants to go further. The Labour leader is challenging the PM to join him in pushing for a revolution in the English game’s ownership model.

Inside the bubble

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

Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer will be in rare agreement over football at PMQs today. But there is still plenty to divide them. The PM will be grilled on the various inquiries being made into various “sleaze” claims. There will also be Commons questions on Northern Ireland, and we should hear the result of the Lord Speaker election.

Daily briefing

DIRTY HALF DOZEN DENIED: We hoped it would be all over. Looks like it is now. All six of the Premier League teams involved in the European Super League have pulled out the project, after Chelsea and Man City got cold feet. Two of the big Spanish clubs are thought to be ready to join them. Was it Boris what won it? Johnson used his latest press conference to attack the “cartel” behind the league – accusing the elite group of offending “the basic principles of competition”. He promised football bodies and fan groups his government would “drop a legislative bomb” to prevent it from going ahead. The PM responded to last night’s news by saying he “commended” Chelsea and Man City for being the first to back out. Keir Starmer said the English withdrawal was “fantastic” – but insisted it must usher in real change. The Labour leader told The Independent he backed a German ownership model, where supporters own 51 per cent stakes in their clubs. “It needs to be a watershed moment in the positive sense, that fans and others rise up.”

WHITE HOUSE DOWN: Two other big overnight developments. Downing Street has ditched its plan for White House-style press conferences, despite £2.6m being spent on a new media suite. Johnson’s media chief Allegra Stratton – hired partly to front the TV briefings – will instead become the spokeswoman for this year’s Cop26 climate summit. “I am delighted,” she told the BBC. Hmmm. Odd. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner claimed the PM and his team had got scared of regular scrutiny – accusing them of “wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money” on the media venue. The other big news is the exit of Tory MP Johnny Mercer as veterans minister. The Tory MP claims he was “forced” out over his opposition to the treatment of veterans. Mercer was unhappy about the failure to prevent ex-soldiers being taken to court for alleged crimes in Northern Ireland. Mercer said the government had “abandoned people in a way I simply cannot reconcile” in allowing “endless investigations” into historic killings.

HISTORY REGURGITATING ITSELF: Violence in Northern Ireland does not feel very “historic” at the moment. Political leaders in the province denounced an attempt to murder a police officer after a bomb was found outside her home. The New IRA terrorist group may have been behind the plot, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said. DUP leader Arlene Foster was quick to blame dissident Republicans. “To the Republicans who sought to murder this young mother, your campaign is futile.” Deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill, of Sinn Fein, said: “Those involved in this attack will not succeed in their regressive and toxic agenda.” It comes as Boris Johnson is accused of making “false promises” to the people of the province, after he threatened to tear up parts the protocol he negotiated. He told a BBC Northern Ireland documentary he would end trade barriers between GB and NI – claiming his government was now “sandpapering” the protocol “into shape.” Stephen Farry, an Alliance Party MP, warned that “more false promises only make things worse”.

CODE SHAKERS, HEART BREAKERS: Surprise, surprise. Boris Johnson won’t be giving up the power to decide on probes over breaches of the ministerial code. Not without a fight, anyway. Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith said enforcement of the code was ultimately “the responsibility of the prime minister of the day”. Lib Dem leader Ed Davey had written to the government, calling on the PM to “take decisive and urgent action to rebuild their trust”. Labour will also keep pushing for an independent adjudicator of the code. “If Boris Johnson is responsible for upholding standards of behaviour, then we’ve got problems,” Labour MP Dan Carden told The Independent. The PM endured a very, very, very long question about Jennifer Arcuri from the Huff Post’s Paul Waugh at the latest press conference. Asked if he had behaved appropriately in his alleged affair, Johnson replied “yes” and moved swiftly on. Meanwhile, David Cameron has been given two weeks by the Treasury select committee to hand over all text messages he sent to lobby Rishi Sunak and his officials.

HOPING FOR A MIRACLE: Climate campaigners have challenged No 10 to set out how exactly the UK will meet its new emissions target. Johnson pledged the UK would cut emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, compared with 1990 levels. Greenpeace UK’s head of politics, Rebecca Newsom, said the move “makes destructive projects like new road-building and airport expansion even harder to justify.” It comes as it emerged that the government is planning so-called “green flights” to take the PM and other leaders to the Cop26 climate summit. Up to 65 heads of state would fly to Scotland on planes using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) – touted as reducing carbon emissions by up to 80 per cent compared to traditional fossil jet fuels. Campaigners questioned whether the SAF flights are an attempt to “green wash” the aviation industry. Are the plans all for nought? Officials in the US and EU are thought to remain sceptical about the chances of Cop26 going ahead as a physical event.

NAE OFF-FENCE, PAL: SNP chief Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Tory boss Douglas Ross joined forces last night, weirdly – both accusing Labour leader Anas Sarwar of “sitting on the fence”. Things got pretty heated at an NUS Scotland online debate, with the leaders clashing over Scotland’s Covid vaccine programme. Sturgeon said: “You have to decide which side you are on.” Sarwar asked: “Was that targeted at me, sorry?” Ross interjected: “She was speaking about sitting on the fence, it was definitely at you Anas.” Sarwar fired back: “I just like to not forget about the half of the country that does not agree with me.” Elsewhere, equalities minister Kemi Badenoch condemned the “appalling abuse and false assertions” made by an arm of the UN about the government’s race report. The minister defended the findings and also dismissed criticism by Labour and others as “bad faith attempts to undermine the report’s credibility”. Badenoch also said she was “proud” of the report.

On the record

“How can it be right to have a situation in which you create a kind of cartel that stops clubs competing against each other … with all the hope and excitement that gives to the fans?”

Boris Johnson on the despised European Super League.

From the Twitterati

“I was actually looking forward to this ... what a shame.”

Jane Merrick on the cancelled White House-style briefings…

“Who could have foreseen that Boris Johnson would come up with an idea, spend a chunk of taxpayer money on it, and then for it to be cancelled?”

…but Rob Smith says it was pretty predictable.

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: Boris Johnson wants to be the man who saved football

Vince Cable, The Independent: The lobbying act is as leaky as a sieve – here’s how to stop sleaze

Katy Balls, The Spectator: What is Michael Gove up to in Israel?

Rafael Behr, The Guardian: The future of the UK depends on a Labour revival in England

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