Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick was left red-faced after being forced to admit he did not know the name of the new England manager.
Thomas Tuchel agreed to take the job on Tuesday evening – and the news is on the front page of nearly every paper this morning.
After delivering a speech in London, Jenrick was asked for his reaction to the German’s appointment.
He said: “On the new England manager, I have to confess I haven’t even seen this news while I’ve been here this morning.”
After being given Tuchel’s name by an aide, Jenrick added: “Ah, ok. That’s a good choice.”
He then laughed awkwardly as he tried to hide his embarrassment.
Tuchel, the former Chelsea manager, is the third foreigner to be appointed manager of the England men’s team.
He follows in the footsteps of Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.
In his speech, Jenrick said the welfare bill should be slashed to cut 2p off the basic rate of income tax.
He said: “If we can get people back into work, we can ensure that taxes are cut and we can do so responsibly this time.
“I am setting a simple target: we will bring the inactivity rate back down to its pre-pandemic level, bringing almost 500,000 people back into the workforce. Increase GDP, increase tax revenue, reduce spending — a win-win for everyone in our country.
“If we can get the disability and incapacity caseload back to 2019 we can take roughly £12 billion off the working age benefits bill. That would equate to almost 2p off the basic rate of income tax.
“No more excuses about the tax burden. Just delivering what we promised.”
