A NEWLY elected SNP MP has faced abuse from her Westminster colleagues for the crime of not supporting England in the World Cup.
Lara Bird, who won the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry by-election last month, was asked who she’ll be cheering on at the Fifa tournament during an appearance on the infamous BBC sports show Politics Live.
In a clip shared by the BBC Politics account (surely in good faith…), host Vicki Young began with a line that could have come from just about any Westminster-based broadcast of the last 100 years.
“Obviously we've been talking about England,” she said.
“We’ll probably all become very passionate Norwegian supporters" SNP MP Lara Bird tells #PoliticsLive who she'll be backing in the World Cup quarter-final on Saturday night https://t.co/ai6qUXIj4w pic.twitter.com/ESgOU1f7fQ
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) July 7, 2026
Addressing Bird, the BBC host went on: “I mean, you are half Scottish, half English. Were you supporting England on Sunday, the other night [in their match against Mexico ]?”
The SNP MP responded: “I was not supporting England the other night, no."
Because people failing to support England is of course a scandal, the BBC host then pushed: “Were you actively supporting Mexico? Or just a neutral?”
Bird said: “I think there's been a really funny sort of momentum in Scotland at the moment who have all become really passionate Mexican supporters and will probably all become very passionate Norwegian supporters.
“It's just what we do in Scotland and it's sort of quite a funny…”
The SNP MP was then cut off, as the BBC host demanded to know if she will be supporting Norway in the quarter-final clash against England on Saturday.
“Probably,” Bird said.
The crime of not supporting England has seen Bird dragged through the mud by some in the Westminster bubble.
“Sorry but I find this beyond pathetic,” LBC host Ben Kentish wrote – apparently in reference to the SNP MP and not the BBC using up time on a flagship politics show to grill someone on why they would dare not to cheer on Harry Kane.
Conservative MP and shadow minister Paul Holmes was genuinely unable to comprehend it.
“Not her genuine view of course, a fake political narrative to suit her agenda," he wrote, apparently confusing her with a Tory.
MP Karl Turner – ironically now an independent after being suspended from Labour for not supporting the right team – said Bird’s response was “odd”.
“If Scotland were playing anybody else in the world apart from England I’d be supporting them,” he said. “If Wales were playing Scotland I’d not be able to decide which team to support.”
Stewart Jackson, a Tory lord who was on the same BBC show, said he had "cringed" at Bird's comments.
Other accounts were much more openly vile in their responses, which ranged from outright misogynistic to just bizarre. One user, for example, genuinely suggested that Bird would have “supported Nazi Germany”.
Pete Wishart, Bird’s SNP MP colleague, said: “Every World Cup they feel they can tell us or even bully us into who we should support. It's called 'football rivalry' and for some reason they will never quite understand it.”
The MPs taking shots at Bird may want to remember that a YouGov poll last month found just one in 10 Scots will be supporting England at the World Cup, so she is very much representative of the majority.
But then, what does it matter to those at Westminster if they insult a few jocks?
