It is often said that sport and politics don’t mix - a claim that is palpably inaccurate.

There’s nothing politicians like more than hitching their coattails - or shirt imprinted with their name and number - to the success of a triumphant team or athlete.

Keir Starmer responded to the announcement about a snap election by travelling down to Kent and visiting the Gills stadium. It set a trend - no VIP visits could be complete without a stop at a local football team. And to be fair, Sir Keir is a genuine fan - he is an Arsenal FC season ticket holder.

Some may quibble about his appearance at the final of the Euros in Germany but it would have been odd for the leader of one of the countries in that final to have swerved the occasion.

Just imagine if we had won and he’d stayed at home watching repeats of Death in Paradise. The outcry would have been enormous.

Tony Blair, when he was leader of the opposition, recognised the communicative power of sportsmen and women and cleverly aligned himself to footballers, past and present.

He displayed his own skills, playing head football with former legendary Liverpool player Kevin Keegan at a party conference in 1997 for an impressively long time.

But despite his heading skills, he faced questions about an interview in which he was said to have claimed that he had watched the iconic Newcastle player Jackie Milburn - even though he was just four at the time. It turned out that he had been misreported but the potential for things to go wrong is a risk.

The Maidstone MP Helen Grant found to her cost how things can go disastrously awry when she was ambushed in an interview with ITV about her sporting knowledge.

The then-sports minister was asked five questions about sport - including one on when Maidstone FC had left the football league - and got none of them right.

Grant protested that she had not been aware she’d be tested but got little sympathy and her spell as minister was rather short-lived.

The focus on football was evident in the main parties’ manifestos, with Labour and the Lib Dems both making specific pledges; the latter promising to get more free-to-air matches and both promising a crackdown on ticket prices and resales.

It will be interesting to see if this unashamed populism is pursued - the intervention of the state in regulating ticket prices may not go down well with the owners of top-flight clubs.

But it shows the government is committed to helping hard-pressed fans and will continue to push the governing bodies on the need for steps to be taken to make their sport more affordable.

When the face value cost of a centre court ticket for Wimbledon is £275, you don’t need to be told that prices are beyond the reach of many.