LONDON — “I don’t really have a football team … Wimborne Town Football Club!”
A U.K. minister appeared to temporarily forget, and then suddenly remember, what football team he supports, during an excruciating back and forth with a broadcaster Wednesday morning.
Immigration Minister Michael Tomlinson — who was tasked with making the government’s case ahead of a critical vote on Rishi Sunak’s migration policy Wednesday evening — claimed he was a big sports fan in an interview with Sky News presenter Kay Burley.
Burley had asked Tomlinson why he hadn’t watched ITV’s drama about the Post Office scandal, which has gripped Westminster in recent weeks.
“I watch very little, is the honest and straightforward answer, if you ask my family they’ll say I’m a little bit focused on what I’m doing and probably don’t have enough time to watch box sets — and I’m not sure I can even tell you the last box set I watched,” Tomlinson said.
“But I do enjoy watching sport, and if you want to ask me about cricket or sport then please do,” he added, unwisely. Asked what football team he supports, Tomlinson forgot for all of ten seconds.
“I don’t really have a football team,” he said. “I’m a cricket fan, I love sport and I enjoy watching sport — but it would be wrong to tell you that I have a football team.
“I’ve been to Bournemouth, I’ve been to various other grounds but I don’t have a specific football team,” he said, before quickly adding “Wimborne Town Football Club!”
His support for the Magpies doesn’t seem to run particularly deep. “What was their last result?” Burley asked.
“I couldn’t tell you their last result. But the last result that I was there was very exciting, there were lots of goals — and it was a 1-1 draw,” he added.
Current foreign secretary — and former PM — David Cameron also once struggled with the sport, naming West Ham United as his football club in a London speech — even though he is a fan of Aston Villa.