“Best of luck @Lionesses,” posted Boris Johnson on X on Sunday night, shortly before England’s women successfully retained their Euros title against Spain in Basel. “Come on England!”.
Unlike Johnson, though, current prime minister – and actual football fan – Keir Starmer has had the successful Lionesses through the Downing Street door and, if rumours are true, could be handing Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman an honorary damehood. Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner hosted the victorious squad while Starmer video-called in from Scotland, where he was being hosted by Donald Trump.
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Despite posting pictures of himself and some of his children watching games on TV on social media during the last women’s Euros, in 2022, Johnson failed to mark their success in any way. The team was not invited to Downing Street, and, despite a spokesperson saying at the time that Johnson “definitely” wanted the Lionesses to receive “the recognition they rightly deserve”, a handful of players had to wait for Southampton fan Rishi Sunak to become PM in order to receive MBEs in December 2023.
It wasn’t the first and probably not the last time Johnson has let women down.
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