Former Manchester United footballer and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has put the boot into critics of Sir Keir Starmer accepting thousands of pounds worth of football freebies.
The prime minister has been attacked by Tory MPs after he declared receiving £12,588 in gifts from the Premier League, including tickets for Arsenal matches totalling more than £6,000.
But Neville, a former Manchester United captain who won 85 caps for England, told Sky News that Sir Keir had “not done anything wrong”, and watching Arsenal with his family was “his only release”.
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“I’m startled at the amounts of scrutiny that this has received,” the prominent Labour supporter told Sky News at the party’s conference in Liverpool.
“It’s well out of proportion. Everybody has known that Keir Starmer, with his family, has gone and watched Arsenal. He has paid for season tickets for decades. It’s one of his main releases every single week. The only release, actually.
“When I spoke to him two years ago at the Labour Party conference and said: ‘How do you get away from politics and how do you spend time with your family?’ he said the one moment he has each week is when he goes to Arsenal with his boys.
“The idea that he’s paid for those tickets for years is absolutely right. But he’s now being told by security detail he can’t sit in those same seats. He’s being told that he needs to go into a hospitality box as prime minister.”
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Neville added: “My honest view of that is that why would we have a problem with that? We’ve seen so many people being wined and dined at football grounds over the last 10, 15, 20 years in directors’ boxes and hospitality boxes and never said a word.
“And a genuine fan of a football club that goes with his children can’t now go and watch his football team when he’s the prime minister of the country is just a nonsense to me.”
He also pointed to the record of the Conservative government, including Rishi Sunak’s use of a £40m helicopter contract and VIP lanes for suppliers during COVID, saying: “That didn’t get anywhere near the same level of scrutiny, it’s just bizarre to me.
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Gary Neville has appeared alongside Sir Keir Starmer at previous conferences. Pic: Reuters
Neville, who is now a successful property developer, was at the party’s conference in Liverpool alongside Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, with the pair backing regeneration of his former club’s Old Trafford stadium.
Both were “absolutely unequivocal” that no public money should be put into the ground itself, but they called for cash to be used to redevelop the area around it and to relocate a nearby freight rail terminal to Merseyside – freeing up space for the stadium and also boosting the local economy.
“When you talk about Northern Powerhouse as a levelling up, the previous government’s motto, none of that has ever happened,” said Neville. “It’s just words. It’s a PR slogan.
“What this will do is redistribute the freight into a different part of the North West to allow capacity to open up in Greater Manchester, in Liverpool, and other parts and beyond, which will have a massive impact on the economy locally.”
He added: “We’re talking about an opportunity that could regenerate the area in Trafford, in Greater Manchester but also correct what would be a struggling transport network in the north of England. So it’s a win-win all around.”
Asked what football fans could expect from a new Old Trafford stadium, Mr Burnham also told Sky News: “They can expect one of, if not the best, stadiums in the world.
“But around that, residents can expect better community facilities and many thousands of jobs. We will bring new investors to Greater Manchester to invest in this area because of how attractive it will be to be close to that name, Manchester United.
“So there’ll be benefits for everybody from this, not just supporters of Manchester United. Everybody will benefit from the scheme. Not least rail passengers, who will have more uninterrupted journeys because we get rid of the freight trains.”