My advice to the leaders is be bold and do avoid world-class own goals

WE WILL never know if Gareth Southgate's Euros announcement just squad the day before was the trigger that caused Rishi Sunak to make his surprise election announcement.

- Andy Coulson

Did the Prime Minister look at a line-up loaded with young talent and conclude that going to the polls just as the nation will, hopefully, be preparing for a sun-soaked quarter final was a good idea? By settling on July 4, Sunak and his team of advisers might have calculated that the Three Lions' progress under the leadership of someone able but dull might be a useful backdrop to a campaign where positivity will be in short supply. Same goes in Scotland where all eyes will be on their team and a manager unencumbered by charisma.

What's certain is that the campaign kicked off yesterday with a worldie of an own goal from the PM. Becoming an instant meme machine, Mr Sunak stood there soaked with his statesman-like script drowned out by Labour's Things Can Only Get Better.

While Labour activists were cleverly cranking up the volume at the entrance to Downing Street, I suspect Tory advisers were behind the black door arguing over whether an umbrella would make the PM look privileged.

The debacle was entirely avoidable if they had broken away from an old-fashioned view of "how these things are done". They didn't need to make the announcement in the street, at a lectern, in the rain. And they should have anticipated the musical protest, one of the oldest tricks in the campaigning book.