Politics

Minister Dismisses Controversial Football Chant Targeting Starmer with Explicit Language

Published on June 10, 2025

A cabinet minister has brushed off a brutal football chant aimed at Keir Starmer, after crowds of England supporters were heard shouting a very unflattering four-letter word about the prime minister during a recent match.

It all kicked off during England’s World Cup Qualifier against Andorra in Barcelona, where thousands of fans erupted into a chant branding Starmer a “c***”. The chant, according to The Telegraph, was set to the tune of the 1982 hit Give It Up by KC & The Sunshine Band — only this version swapped in Starmer’s name and the expletive for the lyrics.

With around 7,000 England fans in the stadium, the moment was hard to miss — and clearly not just a few rowdy voices. But when the incident was brought up with science secretary Peter Kyle during an appearance on Sky News, his reaction raised eyebrows, reported Huffington Post.

Host Trevor Phillips put it to him straight, asking: “Isn’t it really early in your term of office for that level of unpopularity?” Kyle chuckled and didn’t exactly rush to defend his party leader. He admitted he’s not a big football fan and tried to downplay the whole thing, saying: “This is football, it’s football chanting, it’s part of the, uh, spirit of the game.”

But Phillips wasn’t buying the casual brush-off and pushed further, referencing comments from England manager Thomas Tuchel, who labelled the chant “not acceptable” behaviour from fans. He asked whether the government was concerned about what it all said about public feeling.

In response, Kyle tried to shift the conversation to Labour’s so-called tough choices. “Actually, we have a prime minister that has taken really tough decisions since he came in,” he said, defending Starmer. “People have to understand that when you win an election, things don’t go back to zero, you start where the others left off.”

He blamed the previous Conservative government for putting Labour in a difficult spot, adding: “We’ve had to do difficult things because they didn’t make difficult decisions in office, it forced us to take those difficult decisions in office.”

Kyle then tried to bring the conversation back to policy, saying the upcoming spending review will show how Labour is prioritising the next generation. “So the next time we have an England game, I’m pretty sure they’ll be chanting some pretty nice things about us too,” he added with a hopeful smile.

But behind the light-hearted attempt to laugh it off, there’s no denying the chant lands at an awkward time for the prime minister. According to the latest YouGov poll, Labour has slumped to its lowest support level since the Jeremy Corbyn days, now sitting at just 21%.

And Starmer’s own approval rating has taken a serious hit. Among Labour voters, the number who view him favorably has plunged from 62% in April to just 45% in May. It’s the first time his popularity has turned negative within his own base — a worrying sign for someone still fairly new in the top job.

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