Downing Street has defended Boris Johnson’s decision not to watch England win the Euros in person at Wembley.
A record crowd of 87,192 fans watched the Lionesses’ dramatic 2-1 victory over Germany in the stadium, but the prime minister was not one of them.
Instead Johnson chose to watch the Sunday night game from his countryside retreat of Chequers.
Last year Johnson saw England team lose to Italy in the men’s Euro final, which was also held at Wembley, in person.
Asked why the PM did not make the effort to go to the game yesterday, his spokesperson said: “The prime minister did watch the game at home along with, I think, 17.4 million other [people].
“The prime minister watched it along with a seemingly significant proportion of the UK public on TV and has been supporting them throughout.”
By contrast, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, travelled from Germany to London to watch the match.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and frontrunner in the Tory leadership race, represented the British government at the game.
Members of England’s victorious team could be in line for honours, with No.10 saying Johnson “definitely” wanted the Lionesses to receive “the recognition they rightl deserve”.
But there are no current plans for the team to be invited to Downing Street as part of the celebrations.
Johnson is attending the funeral of former Northern Ireland first minister David Trimble today and is then due to go on holiday on Wednesday until Sunday.
The prime minister did make plans to welcome the England men’s team to No.10 ahead of the 2021 Euro final, but the idea was dropped when the FA said the players did not want to attend if they lost.
Downing Street also said there were “no plans” to add a new bank holiday following the England women’s team’s victory.