{"id":69845,"date":"2026-05-13T19:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/69845\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:18:14","slug":"keir-starmer-raises-eyebrows-as-he-proudly-declares-himself-a-gooner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/69845\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer raises eyebrows as he proudly declares himself a ‘gooner’"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called himself a “gooner” during a speech to parliament Wednesday, seemingly unaware of the derogatory meaning in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The slang term<\/a> has two meanings in the U.K. and U.S., respectively. When a Brit calls themselves “gooners,” they are emphasizing their support for the Arsenal Football Club. However, Americans refer to “gooners” as impulsive pornography addicts<\/a> who are known to be chronic masturbators. Starmer’s innocent intention to connect with sports fans across his native country prompted comical reactions from users on X.<\/p>\n

“Mr. speaker, I am a gooner,” the British premier<\/a> told his colleagues.<\/p>\n

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“Makes sense why he wants digital ID then, make it harder to access, keep all the goon material for himself,” one wrote. “I’m sure this has some football related meaning,” another added.<\/p>\n

“This has two meanings. Either he is an arsenal fan or he likes to goon,” a third joked.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The episode prompted comical reactions from users on X -Credit:PRU\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch called Labor MPs a “sea of orcs and goons” back in March. In British English, \u201cgooner\u201d is a variation of \u201cGunner\u201d and refers to a supporter of Arsenal F.C.<\/p>\n

Idris Elba, Adam Friedland, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hiddleston, Piers Morgan, and Reese Witherspoon are a few other well-known “gooners.” According to The Spectator, in political discourse the term has been associated with figures such as Keir Starmer, Jeremy Corbyn, Zohran Mamdani, and Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n

The “DC Gooners” fans’ club is held at Franklin Hall, a sports pub in Cockburn’s hometown of Washington; however, a sign over the entry refers to the establishment as the “home of the DC Armory.” Although that term isn’t as popular among Arsenal supporters.<\/p>\n

But it coincides with a “civil war” that has erupted within the Labour party, with four ministers resigning thus far in support of Keir Starmer’s resignation as prime minister. Unions withdrew their support on Wednesday morning as well, stating that it is obvious that Starmer will not lead Labour into the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This coincides with a “civil war” that has erupted within the Labor Party -Credit:PRU\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

According to Badenoch, the Prime Minister is “in office, but not in power.” She stated that Starmer’s government has “run out of road” and that the PM’s authority is “gone” during the King’s Speech debate.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI know the convention is for this to be a light-hearted debate, but as I have already said, this is a highly unusual moment. The Prime Minister is in office, but not in power. Everyone is trying to pretend it\u2019s all right. It\u2019s not all right.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sports and entertainment stories<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past 48 hours, nearly 100 Labour MPs have called for the Prime Minister to resign. Four ministers have quit. It is clear his authority has gone and that he will not be able to deliver what little there is in this King\u2019s Speech. This is a Government less than two years in office, which has already run out of ideas and run out of road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called himself a “gooner” during a speech to parliament Wednesday, seemingly unaware of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[30218,1550,264,381],"class_list":{"0":"post-69845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-keir-starmer","8":"tag-arsenal-football-club","9":"tag-getty-images","10":"tag-keir-starmer","11":"tag-prime-minister"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116568883900438524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}