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LONDON — England is on the cusp of joining the World Cup’s final eight, and hope is tentatively starting to spread that this month could finally end 60 years of hurt for a nation that has come home emptyhanded from every tournament since.
This week’s Westminster Insider podcast explores the strange but powerful relationship between soccer and politics — and the unwritten rules politicians should follow if they want to use the unique emotional power of the beautiful game to their advantage.
1. Get your timing right
It looks highly likely that Andy Burnham will become Britain’s new prime minister on July 20 — just one day after the World Cup final. If England were to lift the trophy, Burnham’s first day in office would coincide with a wave of national euphoria. History suggests this could be somewhat helpful to a new prime minister.
Ten days before England’s 1966 World Cup triumph, Prime Minister Harold Wilson introduced an emergency package of tax rises and spending cuts as Britain grappled with inflation and economic pressure. Morale was low.
Then came Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick and England’s glorious win over West Germany. England’s victory at Wembley gave the country a huge psychological lift — and boosted the standing of the government. Richard Crossman, then leader of the House of Commons, said in his diaries there was “a big change in Harold’s personal position.”
But if Burnham is hoping for a well-timed World Cup-inspired polling boost on arrival, he should be aware that there are obvious risks if England doesn’t go all the way.
In 1970, Wilson had hoped another deep England run would help create a feel-good factor before a general election. Instead, England surrendered a two-goal lead to West Germany in the quarter-finals just four days before polling day.
Home Secretary Roy Jenkins reported after canvassing that voters were despondent — less about the economy or immigration than who was to blame for England’s defeat. Wilson lost to Ted Heath’s Conservatives.
The electoral impact of the 1970 World Cup disappointment is still the subject of debate, though an intriguing fact has only added to the folklore: English voters swung more towards the Conservatives than Scotland and Wales.
2. It’s more than a game
Playwright James Graham, creator of the hit play and BBC TV series “Dear England,” argues politicians often underestimate soccer’s deeper social importance.
Amid the “hollowing out” of British civic life — declining high streets, weakened public spaces and fractured communities — the soccer stadium is one of the few places left where people still gather physically and collectively, he says. So it matters not just every two or four years during major tournaments, but every single week, shaping people’s routines, their communities and even their identities.
When people support their club, they are investing in something bigger than themselves: shared rituals, symbols, songs and belonging. “You have to turn up in person and in proximity with your physical community,” he says.
Graham argues that politicians who understand this are more likely to connect to voters in what he sees as an age of growing disconnection, as people’s lives are increasingly shaped by AI, growth targets and digital life.
“It’s a powerful opportunity to show the kind of country we are,” says Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. “The very best of people coming together.”
3. Be authentic
No discussion of the potential peril of mixing football and politics is complete without mentioning David Cameron.
The former prime minister — supposedly an Aston Villa supporter — famously claimed to support West Ham during the 2015 election campaign.
He later blamed a “brain fade” — but the damage was done.
Scarlett McGwire, political commentator and former Labour adviser, says authenticity is everything.
“One of the reasons it’s so important for politicians to be authentic is there’s this myth that politicians always lie,” she says. “If they’re not authentic, people think: if they’re lying about this, they could be lying about everything.”
Soccer fans can smell performative fandom instantly. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage recently faced criticism after posting what appeared to be recycled football content from Euro 2024 during this World Cup.
Writer and journalist Adrian Goldberg says when politicians are genuine fans “football can just be a little bridge between the electorate and the prime minister.”
Although this didn’t seem to help genuine Arsenal supporter Keir Starmer.
4. Remember the home nations
Navigating loyalties across the United Kingdom — which fields four separate national teams — is hard.
McGwire recalls former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s advisers deciding he was “too Scottish” and working to place a Daily Mail story about how he cheered on the English team.
“It was completely set up,” she says. “Nobody believed it.”
Scottish Labour backbench MP Brian Leishman — a long-suffering supporter of the Tartan Army — is less concerned about courting England fans.
“It would be intolerable if England won the World Cup,” he says. “I would hate it.”
That result could boost support for Scottish independence, he adds — only half-jokingly.
5. There is no single football audience
Soccer teams are cheered on by a wide range of people — from younger fans to older traditionalists, England obsessives to club loyalists, politically engaged supporters to those who simply want politics kept out of the game.
It has grown more difficult for politicians to balance them without stumbling into divisive culture-war debates. Goldberg argues the controversy over players “taking the knee” during the Black Lives Matter protests in the early 2020s left fans on the terraces divided.
“There were some fan bases where taking of the knee was booed, there were others where it was embraced and others where fans were kind of somewhere in the middle around that,” he says.
That makes targeting your desired crowd crucial. Farage and his Reform UK party appear to be seeking the support of football fans with a campaign of turquoise football shirts, and visits to clubs like Ipswich Town.
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Lise Klaveness, the president of Norway’s football federation, criticized FIFA chief Gianni Infantino’s extensive travel by private jetduring the World Cup.
“Being in one place for the first half and another for the second, and having to fly back and forth,” Klaveness told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “That’s not how we would have done it.”
A recent BBC report estimated that Infantino’s plane travel during the first two weeks of the World Cup has produced the equivalent climate impact of 78 people over a whole year.
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