Gary Neville made his thoughts known about Boris Johnson’s leadership following England’s semi-final victory over Denmark.
Harry Kane’s extra-time winner at Wembley secured a 2-1 victory for Gareth Southgate’s team, sending England into their first major final since 1966.
Boris Johnson, who was at Wembley with wife Carrie to watch the game, tweeted: “Tonight @England played their hearts out.
“What a fantastic performance from Gareth Southgate’s squad.
“Now to the final. Let’s bring it home”.
Respectful, humble
But former England and Manchester United defender Neville was quick to make a political point as the festivities unfolded.
Speaking on ITV, he said: “The standard of leaders in this country the past couple of years has been poor, looking at that man (Southgate), he’s everything a leader should be, respectful, humble, he tells the truth.”
He added: “We’ve never done this before in our lifetimes. These lads have to focus but we don’t have to. This country is bouncing, national holiday, enjoy yourselves!”
“Out of their depth”
Late last year Neville said Britain’s political leaders are “out of their depth” in their handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK.
He said people are “frustrated with the lack of leadership” in protecting the communities that are hardest hit.
Asked about what this says about the country’s political leaders, Neville told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “They’re out of their depth.
“The countries who’ve dealt with this really well, they’ve had definite and sure leaders, people who have been in control, composed, clear plans, clear communication strategy, aggressive testing, disciplined tracing, they’ve had maybe border controls in place early, they’ve made decisions that have been unpopular at times, but they’ve really handled the virus well.
“We’re still, eight months later, none the wiser as to how our long-term looks, how our short-term looks, how our medium-term looks.”
Related: ‘The history boys’: Newspapers react to famous England victory
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
