Keir Starmer intervened in the row at Mexico-England kick-off time

The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were embroiled in a debate over the kick-off time for England’s World Cup match against Mexico – as proposed by FIFA in the days leading up to the game.

Sir Keir Starmer instructed officials to make a case, backed by the Football Association, for the match to stay in its original time slot.

Yvette Cooper spoke to the British ambassador in Mexico, who said that British diplomats in the country had represented against a change, to ensure that the 3,000 traveling England supporters did not miss the match.

FIFA had set the match to be moved forward by six hours due to the forecast of lightning.

In the end, FIFA stuck to the scheduled start time, but the weather delayed the kick-off by an hour.

Speaking at a reception in Downing Street, Sir Keir said: “We had to fight the FA to get it back to where it was, which was the opposite.”

The Football Association had no comment.