A Tory minister has been mocked after claiming to be a sports fan before admitting he doesn’t have a favourite football team.
Michael Tomlinson asked Kay Burley to ask him anything about sport during a tense interview on Sky News.
But he was stumped when the presenter asked him what football team he supports.
The excruciating exchange began when the illegal migration admitted he has not watched ‘Mr Bates vs the Post Office’, the acclaimed ITV drama about the Horizon IT scandal.
Asked what box sets he does watch, Tomlinson said: “I watch very little is the honest and straightforward answer.
“If you ask my family, they’ll say I’m a little too focused on what I’m doing and probably don’t have enough time to watch box sets, and I’m not even sure I could even tell you the last box set that I watched.
“But I do enjoy watching sport, and if you want to ask me about cricket and sport then please do.”
Burley then asked: “Who’s your football team?”
The minister replied: “I don’t really have a football team.”
The presenter said: “So you’re not a sports fan.”
Tomlinson then hit back: “I’m a cricket fan. I love sport, 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.”
The minister’s cringeworthy answer earned him a retweet by the Accidental Partridge account on X - a reference to hapless fictional sports presenter Alan Partridge.
Meanwhile, campaign group Best for Britain described his interview as an “absolute car crash”.