England fans in Boston chant against Farage hours after Starmer's resignation

England fans in Boston reacted to Keir Starmer’s resignation in the early hours of Tuesday morning US time, with supporters chanting against both the outgoing Prime Minister and his potential successor Nigel Farage, ahead of the Three Lions’ friendly against Ghana.

Garford Beck, 64, a London-based supporter who manages the England fans’ team at international tournaments, watched Starmer’s resignation unfold on television and spoke about the mood among travelling supporters. “It was dramatic, it was history being made,” Beck said. “It was inevitable because he had lost the country.”

Beck described how the political moment quickly divided the England support. “England fans have made their feelings known with the famous chant about Starmer. But politics does generate a lot of arguments among our supporters. Many of them start singing about Nigel Farage after the Keir Starmer chant, saying he is a w***er and they don’t want him either. So it starts a discussion among the various factions on the terraces.”

Beck acknowledged that Starmer retained some backing among the travelling support. “Sir Keir had his supporters among the England section. Personally, I have never voted Labour, but there will be those who are sorry to see him go.”

Starmer, a keen Arsenal fan who still plays five-a-side football with friends in north London, conceded he had lost the support of rank-and-file Labour Party members in Parliament. He is expected to step down once a successor as party leader is chosen, potentially as soon as mid-July.

Beck is one of English football’s most dedicated travelling supporters, having attended hundreds of matches over five decades and rarely missing a game since 1980. He first attended an England match at the age of nine with his father Bill, and has since become a ‘Top Capper’ within the official England Supporters Travel Club — a status that earned him access to discounted tickets for all eight games England would need to win to claim a first World Cup since 1966.

As manager of the England fans’ team, Beck has overseen matches at tournaments across the world, including fixtures against France and Australia in Qatar. He has witnessed every England manager’s tenure from Sir Alf Ramsey onwards, and recalled his first match with particular fondness — a game played in the afternoon during national power strikes, in which Mike Channon scored twice and Kevin Keegan featured.