Keir Starmer tells school children Roy Of The Rovers is his favourite book
The Prime Minister also said his favourite football player is Arsenal star Martin Odegaard.
Sir Keir Starmer has said his favourite book is football-based comic strip Roy Of The Rovers.
The Prime Minister also said his favourite football player is Arsenal star Martin Odegaard as he visited a school in Kyiv on Thursday.
It comes as the UK and Ukraine have announced a schools partnership backed by authors including Michael Morpurgo which will see schools twinned.
Sir Keir visited school No 219 in the Ukrainian capital as they spoke by videolink to All Saints Primary School in Anfield, Liverpool, and watched pupils in the two countries discuss their favourite books.
Asked by a student about his own choice, Sir Keir said: “My favourite book is Roy Of The Rovers. It’s a fabulous book – well known in Anfield.
“I love football, so all my books are about football.”
The long-running comic strip follows the career of fictional footballer and then manager Roy Race at Melchester Rovers
Another pupil asked Sir Keir about the hardest part of being Prime Minister. He joked it was trying to keep everybody happy in Parliament, before saying the hardest part was taking the right decisions to make people better off.
The Prime Minister is known to be a fan of Arsenal, whose Emirates Stadium is near his north London constituency.
During the visit, one student said his favourite football team is also Arsenal, and former striker Thierry Henry his favourite player.
Sir Keir said Henry is “the all-time best” and that his favourite current player is Norwegian star Odegaard.
The programme announced on Thursday will see 50 schools in the UK paired with 50 schools in Ukraine on a year-long reading project.
Schools will be selected from across the four nations of the UK before the launch in the late spring.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said: “I was lucky to be gifted a love of reading as a child. That opened so many doors for me that would have otherwise been closed.
“Reading brings new perspectives and builds empathy, and it can help children facing adversity make sense of their own experiences. That’s why this partnership is so important.”
