The mood in the pubs of St John’s Wood is venomous. Not just because England lost. Because they can’t get there.
The US travel ban, announced late last night, is a political grenade lobbed straight at Downing Street. The message from the White House is clear. Britain is not a privileged ally.
It is a risk. The Foreign Office is scrambling. Quiet calls.
Frantic memos. But the damage is done. MPs are receiving hundreds of emails.
Constituents who bought flights, hotels, tickets. Now stranded. “A World Cup for them, not us,” one fan told me outside the Marylebone cricket ground.
The quote will stick. The backbench mood is turning ugly. Sources tell me a letter of no confidence is being drafted.
Not in the PM. In the special relationship. The government line is that they are ‘urgently seeking clarification’.
But the White House is not returning calls. The politics is brutal. Starmer must choose.
Sell out the fans or pick a fight with Washington. Either way, he loses. The polling impact could be severe.
Red Wall seats, full of football fans, will remember. This is not a diplomatic spat. This is a culture war.
The World Cup belongs to everyone, they say. Except now it doesn’t.
