MPs suggest World Cup boycott in response to Trump’s Greenland threats

MPs have called for the home nations to boycott the men’s football World Cup this summer in response to US President Donald Trump’s plans to annex Greenland.

Conservative former minister Simon Hoare and Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam Luke Taylor intimated that both England and Scotland, along with any other home nations who qualify through the playoffs, should pull out of the tournament in protest at Trump.

Hoare said the Government needed to “fight fire with fire” and embarrass Trump.

He also suggested the King could cancel his planned state visit to the United States.

Speaking in the House of Commons Hoare said: “The Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister, Nato, the Danes and others have been commended for responding to this through the usual channels and through the usual means.

“Now, that would be fine if we had an occupant of the White House who understood all of that and who respected all of that, but he laughs now, not just behind his hand, but blatantly in our faces as a result of that.

“So, whilst all of that continues, we need to try and work out what makes this man tick. He is thin-skinned, he has an ego and he doesn’t like to be embarrassed.

“Should the state visit go ahead this year? Should football teams play in American stadia for the World Cup?

“These are things which would embarrass the president at home. We now need to fight fire with fire.”

The World Cup will start on June 11. Scotland will play their first World Cup game in nearly 30 years three days later.

Meanwhile Thomas Tuchel’s England will kick off against Croatia on June 17.

Scotland will play their games in Massachusetts and Florida, while England’s group stage fixtures will take place in Texas, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

It comes as Trump said he was 100% committed to hitting the UK and European allies with tariffs in protest at opposition to his plans for Greenland.

Taylor said: “Diplomacy relies on rational actors, yet even in the last fortnight we have seen Donald Trump declare that he is not bound by international law, only his own morality.

“He has deployed paramilitary forces against his own people, and he speaks of cancelling elections. How apt.

“We also have seen the unilateral kidnapping of the president of an independent country. We are not dealing with a rational man.

“He responds only to shiny baubles, as we’ve seen with the incredible saga of the Nobel Peace Prize.

“So I want to agree with (Hoare) and ask the Government if they will consider removing the King’s visit to the United States, and also a boycott of the World Cup to show Donald Trump that the only thing he responds to is his own pride.”

Responding to Hoare, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The approach that our Prime Minister has taken, the approach that this Government has taken, has already led to very big changes in the United States’ initial proposals on tariffs that were, as a result, substantially reduced and changed as a result of that engagement.

“We’ve also seen, as a result of the engagement, big changes in the US approach to Ukraine, where considerable work has been done now to secure agreements around security guarantees that have been immensely important, and that is as a result of continued engagement, not just by the Prime Minister, but others more widely.”

She told Taylor that engagement by Sir Keir with Trump had led to billions of pounds of tech investment.