Pretty sure even the PM is allowed to carry on being a football fan, and it's not unreasonable that changes to how he goes to matches happen to accommodate his security needs. This hairshirt nonsense is really grinding my gears.Pretty sure even the PM is allowed to carry on being a football fan, and it's not unreasonable that changes to how he goes to matches happen to accommodate his security needs. This hairshirt nonsense is really grinding my gears.

He would have paid for his season ticket well before the election, and an arrangement has been made with the club now his security situation is different. I don't see the issue. He goes with his son, like a lot of fathers, it's odd to essentially argue that a PM shouldn't do stuff with their kids.

This! He is a lifelong supporter, and so are his kids, who didn't ask to be elected to anything AFAIK It seems no one remembers the number of freebies the last lot took. All that cos-playing in tanks, helicopters everywhere

Yup. And if the club gifts him a private box which makes security easier and therefore costs the taxpayer less, I'm all for it.

Completely agree. Allowing our PM (& his family) to live as normal a life as possible should be something desirable. Same for other politicians, I want politicians either a range of outside interests that really matter to them - it is healthy.

It's properly annoying me too.

It's all just so ludicrous. Do they expect Starmer and his family to dress in sackcloth and ashes and become hermits now?

I do hope we can spend the next five years studying the day to day life of the Starmers, rather than his performance as PM. I am quite keen to know if he pays for is own coffee and milk, or whether the taxpayer picks up the tab at Downing Street. What about toilet paper?

There's a fairly widespread belief that public service is about SACRIFICE. In education and health, it means accepting damage to your mental and physical wellbeing; in politics, a series of purity tests that imply anything is a potential grift. It's appalling.

Hypocritical hacks are making us hacked off with them. Keir Starmer should go to as many Arsenal FC matches as he likes. May he enjoy every one of them.

Wasn't John Major a regular at the Oval? I wouldn't want a PM who has no outside interests/leisure time. That's not good for a person.