Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer has thrown his support behind the England team after Harry Kane’s rebuttal to Gary Lineker.
Captain Kane recently asked Lineker to “remember what it feels like to wear the shirt” after criticism from the former England striker.
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Lineker described the Three Lions’ performance in the 1-1 draw against Denmark as “crap” and singled out Kane’s performance for scrutiny.
However, England remain top of Group C at Euro 2024, with four points from two games ahead of the clash against Slovenia on Tuesday evening.
Opposition leader Sir Keir, who is campaigning ahead of the July 4 general election, has been a keen football fan and Arsenal supporter since childhood.
Speaking to Talk in an exclusive one-on-one interview, the politician was asked about his stance on the issue.
In an exclusive clip, released before the full interview aired today at 5pm, Sir Keir said: “I think I support the England team on that.
“Look, they’re in the middle of this competition and a very important match is coming up. Let’s support the team.”
He added: “You know, we’ve done this before, in England. I don’t think we’ve ever had a very good start in these competitions.
“But then we click, we come together. They’re a fantastic team and I’m going to support them all the way.”
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Lineker previously responded to Kane’s comments during a conversation with Alan Shearer on ‘The Rest is Football’ podcast.
The BBC presenter said: “We’ve spoken many times about journalists not being brave enough to ask their own questions.
“It’s a guarantee that whoever did it would have been critical about it themselves. I think they’re doing it, A – to stir things up, and B – because they’re too scared to To ask questions.
“So, I understand, it embarrasses Harry, but I think he responded well.
“There were one or two elements in there (I didn’t agree) but it’s not easy when you get that sort of thing thrown at you.”
Lineker continued: “If we said, ‘Oh, they played really well,’ we’d be lying to begin with, because they didn’t play well and Harry knows they didn’t play well.
“There’s an element there where I understand what he’s saying, (when he said): ‘But they have a responsibility to be ex-England players and they should know what that is. It’s not It’s not like they won anything’ and the rest of that effect.
“Good. Very good, and he’s absolutely right. But I will say one thing: the last thing in the world we want to be is pessimistic and critical.
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“We want England to perform well on the pitch and the best of all is when England play well and we are excited and enthusiastic about them, so we can say: ‘That performance was brilliant, that performance was great’.
“We don’t want to be critical, but we have to be critical from time to time. And we also did it in a balanced way.”
Watch the full interview with Sir Keir Starmer on Talk at 5pm today.
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