Rishi Sunak scores another own goal with football gaffe
Rishi Sunak found the back of his own net with a footballing gaffe, wrongly looking forward to his team playing Manchester United this weekend – when they are in fact facing Leicester City.
The Southampton FC fan’s fixture confusion came a day after it was pointed out his choice of McDonald’s breakfast was taken off the menu more than two years ago.
Having branded himself an ‘underdog’ in the Tory leadership race, the former chancellor was asked at the Manchester hustings how as a Saints fan how he would get back to winning ways.
‘I’m going to be unpopular for saying it here, starting by beating United this weekend,’ he said.
Southampton, the city of Mr Sunak’s birth, are not due to play Manchester United until August 27.
The candidate, a self-described ‘massive football fan’, to become the next prime minister has previously said he would be a ‘very happy man’ if he could run his club.
Mr Sunak later got a huge boost to his campaign when Michael Gove declared his support for him to be the next Conservative leader, accusing Liz Truss of taking a ‘holiday from reality’.
Writing in the Times, he said: ‘I do not expect to be in government again. But it was the privilege of my life to spend 11 years in the cabinet under three prime ministers. I know what the job requires. And Rishi has it.’
He added: ‘And here I am deeply concerned that the framing of the leadership debate by many has been a holiday from reality. The answer to the cost-of-living crisis cannot be simply to reject further “handouts” and cut tax.’
About 100 protesters greeted Tory party members as they arrived for the hustings at Manchester Central convention centre.
Chants of ‘Tory scum off our streets’ and ‘Tories out, refugees in’ were shouted at members of the public as they queued to get in.
Nearby, a decommissioned ambulance was parked outside by online campaign 38 Degrees, which has launched a petition to the Government to ‘fix as a priority’ an NHS backlog, it says, of 6.7 million people on waiting lists for elective care.
Jonathan Harty, campaigns manager at 38 Degrees, said: ‘The dire state of this backlog is not an accident, but it certainly is an emergency – that’s why we had to send an ambulance.
‘Millions of patients are already paying the price for years of underfunding the NHS and it’s time the people who want to be our next prime minister step up and do something about it.
‘So far, all we’ve heard from candidates is that Liz Truss wants to scrap the very funding that’s meant to help the service recover after Covid while all Rishi Sunak can come up with is fining people who miss GP appointments. It’s not good enough.
‘If there’s going to be any real chance of tackling this chronic problem, the NHS needs to be fully funded with clear plans to solve workforce shortages and clear up the appointment backlog.’
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