IT WAS hardly possible to miss the politics around the European football championship. Indeed the traditional cries of “keep politics out of sport” were very muted.

“Patriotic” Tory MP Lee Anderson refused to back the England team because they were taking the knee against racism. Boris Johnson and Priti Patel were relaxed about racists booing the team until they found out they were doing well — then they started cheering them.

Sport and politics have a long history and no more so with the challenges socialists have made back to the 19th century to try to keep the interests of capital out of it. There was even a Workers Wimbledon from 1932-1951, which may seem a little odd to some who currently frequent the championships.

The tradition still goes on however in football, with, for example, the fans who support a side like AFC Wimbledon — now back at the club’s original Plough Lane ground after a millionaire bought the club, moved it to Milton Keynes and called it MK Dons.

The association of sport with the success of mainstream political parties in Britain is, however, quite a recent and not-so-well documented development.

In 2021 the attempt by politicians to associate themselves with sporting success is a commonplace. In July 1966 Harold Wilson commented that England only won the World Cup under a Labour government. While Wilson had been an Oxford Don, he had played football as a youth in Huddersfield — albeit badly — so the remark had some authenticity.

Even so, it was not much remarked on at the time. The House of Commons had little to say about the matter beyond a complaint that there were not enough special Royal Mail Stamps marking the victory.

The World Cup win came in the middle of a significant economic crisis for the newly re-elected Labour government and Tony Benn made no mention of football is in diary for the period.

By the time of the 1970 general election things had changed, perhaps reflecting the changing profile of football after the 1966 victory.

Benn’s diary reveals him to be following England’s fortunes in the World Cup of that year with concern. Also concerned was Wilson who argued that Labour’s defeat by Heath’s Tories was at least partly related to the fact that England, who as holders had been expected to do well, had gone out to Brazil in the quarter finals. As Benn noted in his diary on June 7 1970, the political effect of England’s exit could not be “altogether ignored.”

The link between sporting success and political fortune was now clearly made. By the time of the European Championship in 1996 — where England lost to Germany in the semi-final (Gareth Southgate missed a penalty) it is reputed that Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell were laughing in a taxi as they left Wembley, certain that it would have a bad impact on Tory poll ratings.

In 2021 Johnson and Patel made the political calculation that backing racists booing the England team taking the knee at the European Championships would benefit them.

As England progressed to the final they went into a sharp reverse with Johnson appearing at Wembley in an ill fitting three lions T-shirt and Patel posting a picture of herself cheering them on.

England lost the final to a better Italian team but gained credit for their principled anti-racist stand. Johnson did not, while Harold Wilson’s words from 1966 remain true 55 years on.

Keith Flett is a socialist historian.