UK’s Own ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Moment as Sports Fans Turn on Boris Johnson

UXBRIDGE, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 17: Britain's Prime Minster Boris Johnson speaks with members
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Sports fans in the UK may have started their own ‘let’s go Brandon’ movement, as sentiment turns against Britain’s restriction-loving Prime Minister.

British sports fans seem to have begun their own ‘let’s go Brandon’ movement, with sports stadiums playing host to a number of chants targeting restriction-loving PM Boris Johnson.

Johnson has become the centre of much controversy in the UK over the last number of weeks, having reimplemented severe COVID restrictions in England despite the Prime Minister himself being allegedly caught flaunting harsher restrictions last year.

Chants of “stand up if you hate Boris” rang out at the World Darts Championship in London yesterday evening, according to a report by The Mail, as documented by a video viewed nearly one million times online.

One fan at the event was even spotted with a sign reading “all round to Boris’s after”, seemingly in reference to an ongoing scandal facing the Prime Minister regarding alleged lockdown-breaking parties, which supposedly took place in No 10 last year.

Johnson was also the target of chants at a football (U.S. soccer) match in England on Saturday, with attendees singing “Boris Johnson is a c**t“. One video of the event has garnered over 800k views online.

The incidents echo the beginning of the “let’s go Brandon” phenomenon in the US, which began as a result of sporting crowds repeatedly taking aim at President Joe Biden.

The phrase itself gained notoriety after one sports commentator mistakenly reported that an audible “fuck Joe Biden” chant was, in fact, the crowd cheering “let’s go Brandon”. The phrase subsequently took off as a handy cypher for communicating feeling about the President without using swears.

The chants targeting Johnson come not long after the British government reimposed harsh lockdown restrictions in England, reportedly in the hopes of curbing the spread of the omicron variant of the Chinese Coronavirus.

However, others have accused Johnson of implementing restrictions as an attempt to distract the public from various government members’ alleged breaches of previous lockdown rules.

Johnson has come under sustained criticism in the UK over the last few weeks after evidence emerged alleging that lockdown-busting gatherings were held in Downing Street.

These gatherings, at least one of which is alleged to be a Christmas party, would have occurred while severe lockdown restrictions were in place.

Although the Prime Minister has stringently denied any notion that lockdown rules were ever broken, an inquiry has been launched into three separate gatherings that are alleged to have occurred.

An image has also surfaced showing the Prime Minister, alongside other senior British politicians, attending an outdoor gathering in May which is alleged to have broken lockdown rules.

Published by The Guardian, the image appears to show a lack of social distancing at the party, as some attendees sit with what appears to be wine in front of them.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister has confirmed that Johnson did in fact attend an outdoor meeting that day with the then health secretary and his team, but only briefly, and that he left for his residence shortly after 7pm.

Despite the PM’s reassurances, many are not satisfied with Johnson’s conduct.

“Why should people listen to the Prime Minister’s instructions to follow the rules when people inside Number 10 Downing Street don’t do so?” asked one Conservative MP earlier in the month regarding further lockdown restrictions.

Others, such as Arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage have accused the Prime Minister of lacking the “moral authority” to rule.

“As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Johnson, I’m not listening anymore, I don’t believe you have the moral authority to lead this country,” Farage said. “I’ve no intention of abiding by anything you’ve asked me to do this evening, and I think that sentiment is one that is being much more widely shared around this country.”

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