Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne came under fire today after writing off England’s chances of winning Euro 2012.
Hours before the crunch game against Ukraine, he dismissed the likelihood of Roy Hodgson’s team lifting the trophy as “hypothetical”.
He was defending the decision by ministers to boycott England’s group stage matches in protest at Ukraine’s justice record and because they are busy ahead of the Olympics. But ministers may go if England get into the quarter-finals.
At a meeting of the Commons foreign affairs committee, Labour MP Frank Roy said it showed “total inconsistency” for Britain to shun some parts of the competition but not others.
Mr Browne replied: “I only observe that the only time that England have ever reached an international tournament final was when it was held in England. So these difficulties did not arise ... history suggests that we are dealing in hypotheticals here.”
Labour MP Steve Pound said: “We are used to a bit of pessimism from a QPR season ticket holder like Jeremy. But the Foreign Office is supposed to represent the best of British not talk down our prospects. Shevchenko will be delighted but the rest of us will be pretty angry.”
