Labour backs England World Cup

Labour would back an England-led bid to host the World Cup in 2030, the party’s deputy leader has said.

Tom Watson said Labour supported putting a bid together for 2030 to celebrate the centenary of the World Cup football tournament.

Mr Watson said: “I’ve been driving my kids cra- zy because I am old enough to remember Italia ’90 when we got through to the semi-finals and the country was alive.

“After a very difficult year, seeing the country united these last few weeks has been fantastic and it seems to me you look at Premier League football, which is the best in the world, you look at our lower league football – which is really well run, the Football Foundation has made investments in grassroots football.

“It’s the national game, it can bring the country together, it can give us hope. We were disappointedin2018whenwedid the World Cup bid – it seems to me that we should be bidding for the World Cup 2030.

“That’s a few years off and we don’t know who’s going to be in government in a few years’ time.

“If we’re in government, I hope it’s one of the first things a Labour government does, which is work with our FA to try and put a World Cup bid together.”