Sir Keir Starmer has backed criticism of Nike for altering the cross of St George on the again of the brand new England equipment.
The Labour chief referred to as on the sports activities producer to change the multicolour flag again to the unique one.
His feedback come after a social media storm over the change, with calls on X to boycott the US sports activities producer.
The row began after Nike posted photos on-line of the brand new England equipment which shall be used for this summer season’s Euro 24 event.
Whereas some photos confirmed off the ‘away’ equipment’s new color purple, alongside the basic ‘residence’ white jersey, one of many X posts confirmed a brand new motif that includes a purple, blue, black and pink cross on the again of the shirt, which was captioned: “A playful replace to the flag of St George seems on the collar to unite and encourage.”
Beforehand, shirts have usually featured the pink and white of the St George’s flag.
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The brand new equipment has an ‘up to date’ flag on its collar. Pic: Nike
Hundreds of X customers have reacted to the brand new equipment, the overwhelming majority negatively, with many attacking it for being pointless or “disrespectful”. Some accused Nike of being “woke”, and plenty of urged folks to not purchase Nike merchandise.
Sir Keir joined within the criticism when requested by The Solar if it was “improper” to vary the colors.
“Yeah, I believe it was,” he mentioned.
“As you understand, I am an enormous soccer fan. I’m going to England video games – males’s and ladies’s video games – and the flag is utilized by everyone.
England gamers sporting the present equipment in November 2023. Pic: PA
“It’s a unifier, it does not have to be modified, we simply have to be happy with it – so, I believe they need to simply rethink this and alter it again.”
He went on: “I am not even certain they will correctly clarify why they thought they wanted to vary it within the first place.
“Another factor on that for me, they might additionally scale back the worth of the shirts – I believe it is £130.”
A house group shirt for each women and men prices £124.99 on the Nike web site.
An outline of the brand new equipment from Nike learn: “The England 2024 residence equipment disrupts historical past with a contemporary tackle a basic.
Sir Keir Starmer has intervened within the debate on the brand new England shirt. Pic: PA
“The trim on the cuffs takes its cues from the coaching gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes, with a gradient of blues and reds topped with purple.
“The identical colors additionally function an interpretation of the flag of St George on the again of the collar.”
One social media consumer responded to Nike’s publish to ask: “which different nation’s flag you could have finished this to?”
One other mentioned it was “not yours to mess with”, whereas a 3rd mentioned: “Appears to be like crap I will be sporting my previous England shirt even when I get bean juice down it I might quite put on that than this.”
Nike, which additionally unveiled a slew of different worldwide kits on the identical time, is but to touch upon the storm.
England are additionally but to remark, apart from to publicise the supply of the kits, which went on sale right this moment, on their social feeds.
Euro 2024, which kicks off in Germany in June, is now lower than 100 days away, with England and Scotland having certified and Wales dealing with Poland on Tuesday for one of many play-off locations.
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In what was a wide-ranging interview with The Solar, Sir Keir couldn’t decide to protecting the pension triple-lock for a complete five-year time period if he turns into the prime minister.
He mentioned: “Effectively, I imagine within the triple lock. I do not suppose the federal government ought to have opened this debate up, saying they’d hold to it.
“Clearly, we’ll need to see what the state of the financial system is as we go into the election, we are going to publish all of our plans as we go in and reply that query, however I imagine within the triple-lock.”
He additionally refused to say if he had taken medication at college, saying that he “had fun” when he was a scholar.
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://livdose.com/sir-keir-starmer-backs-requires-nike-to-scrap-new-england-soccer-equipment-over-redesigned-st-george-cross-politics-information/&media=https://i3.wp.com/e3.365dm.com/24/03/1600x900/skynews-nike-england-kit-football_6497288.jpg?20240321214952&w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1&description=The Labour leader joins calls to replace the "playful update" of the St George cross on the back of the new England football kit with the original, after Nike switched it from its usual red and white to a red, purple, blue and black cross, ahead of the Euro 2024 tournament in June.){kind=link}