With England set to kick off their Euro 24 push against Serbia, UK voters have revealed that Sir Keir Starmer would be their choice of a party political leader to manage the team.
The Labour leader, a fanatical Arsenal season ticket holder, topped the Techne UK poll of 1,636 UK voters with 31 percent, with an image of being a tough manager on his Labour team after kicking Jeremy Corbyn off the squad.
The Labour leader has already put out his team message for England.
He said: “There is no feeling like the build up to the first England game of an international tournament: the pubs filling up, the flags waving, the nerves and excitement building.
“As fans up and down the country get ready for kick off, I want to wish Gareth and the team all the best on behalf of the Labour Party. We will be with you for every twist, turn and VAR decision. England is behind you. Make it a summer to remember.”
But after almost two years of Tory chaos the result is not so good for Southampton fan Rishi Sunak who trails in a distant third on 12 percent.
The inability to get to grips with rebellions and a civil war in his party as well as a series of gaffes during the election have apparently left voters with the impression that he cannot manage a team to victory.
The polls putting the Tories around 20 points behind Labour appear to confirm this perspective.
But the surprise second place goes to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, a Crystal Palace fan, who got 17 percent of the vote share for England manager.
Mr Farage’s no nonsense style and willingness to make quick, sometimes brutal decisions for the benefit of the team seems to have impressed voters.
The Reform leader started in this vein on the first day when he jettisoned his predecessor Richard Tice’s immigration policy live on air having decided it would not work. He followed this up a few days later by ditching an electoral pact in Northern Ireland agreed by his party’s deputy leader Ben Habib.
With Mr Farage’s party is making rapid headway in the polls, even passing the Tories in a YouGov survey last week he now wants “to be on the pitch” for the final two leaders’ debates arguing that Reform “is the opposition now to Labour”.
But unlike the other two leaders, Mr Farage may have some issues with the England football team.
He was one of the loudest voices publicly criticising them for taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter and tackling racism.
Trailing in fourth, just behind Mr Sunak on 11 percent is Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey.
Sir Ed has been struggling to get noticed in a campaign dominated by the big three but has had some spectacular photo opportunities falling into water, hurtling down slides and knocking down giant blue Jengas.
The Lib Dem leader is a Liverpool fan having grown up with the all-conquering teams of the 1980s.
He has made a point of supporting teams taking the knee and once tweeted about Liverpool doing it that “I am even prouder to be a Liverpool fan.”
Sir Ed’s management style though seems to be based around taking one for the team.
His fall guy acts of tumbling into water and willingness to do any stunt to get them noticed is definitely effective for the lower league team trying to climb the table.
The Lib Dems hope that by 5 July they will have a great many more seats as a result, mostly at the expense of Sunak’s Tories who seem to be “doing a Chelsea” with their recent collapse in fortunes.
