Pierce's pious peevishness at PM's 'performative' polo

GB News presenter Andrew Pierce was all but frothing at the mouth this week as PM Andy Burnham met President Zelensky while wearing a navy blue zip-up polo shirt.

Burnham was wearing the clothing he had travelled across Europe by train in, later changing into a smart suit and tie to attend more formal meetings in Kyiv alongside the president.

But that wasn’t enough for Pierce, who – while having little to say about the visit itself, or Burnham’s agreement to give Ukraine the blueprint for a long-range missile which can hit targets deep within Russia – was even redder in the face than usual about the premier’s choice of attire.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw this,” fumed Pierce. “Obviously we saw the images very early this morning and my jaw dropped.

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“Look at the people around him! Look at even just the most, you know, possibly lowest official there, in ties, in suits, in, you know, cultural dress and our prime minister’s decided to rock up in a polo shirt. It’s totally performative. It’s ridiculous.

“He’s not looking like a man of the people… he’s representing our country.”

Pierce, of course, doesn’t like political figures deliberately adopting a “totally performative” style… unless, that is, it’s his political hero, Boris Johnson.

Back in October 2014, as Johnson was at the Conservative Party conference plotting a way to succeed David Cameron as leader, a young(er) Andrew Pierce popped up on Good Morning Britain to answer questions as to why the then mayor of London constantly looked like he’d just escaped from a window in a Robin Askwith film.

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“He’s got this sort of bumbling, Pooteresque image which, I can tell you, is very carefully cultivated, it’s not accidental at all. He spends more time in the mirror in the morning messing up his hair than my grandmother used to spend in the hairdressers having a shampoo and set 20 years ago.

“It’s very carefully orchestrated and he knows he’s got appeal to women, men and young people.” So nothing wrong with being “totally performative” there, then?

And as for Burnham’s attire being inappropriate, how did Pierce react in March 2025 when US vice president JD Vance publicly admonished Zelensky for not wearing a suit in the Oval Office?

“Did he not notice that Elon Musk was in the White House last week in a tracksuit with his child on his shoulders, at a press conference?” asked Pierce. “That’s OK for Elon Musk.” Quite!