The Londoner: FA's curator gives England team art

Gareth Southgate’s “wellness” regime for the England players at the World Cup included not just sports psychologists but the introduction of works of art to boost their morale.

Much has been made of the positive impact of psychologist Dr Pippa Grange, but until today it was not known that the team hotel was furnished with 22 pieces of art and sculpture, especially flown over from the UK, which it was hoped would have an uplifting effect on the performances of Harry Kane, Jordan Pickford and the rest of the squad.

The Londoner has learned that the FA arranged for curator Ian Ellis to fly to Russia multiple times to oversee the installation of contemporary works in ForRestMix Club in Repino near St Petersburg. The hotel was “very dour” and sparse, says Ellis. The FA brought in rugs, lamps, leather sofas, as well as the art. Its purpose was “to help the mindset of the players”, says Ellis. The works, which had a “British theme”, were borrowed from Brandler Galleries in Essex and Lawrence Alkin Gallery in Soho among others.

They included Queen Elizabeth by Pure Evil, a British artist and descendant of Sir Thomas More, but the image, which depicts the Queen crying red tears, offended the FA because it looked like “the Queen is crying blood”, according to Ellis.

Another piece — Lucky Ned – was a life-size horse with a lamp shade on its head from Dutch furniture company Moooi. The £4,478 sculpture became a talisman for the team: before every game, the players would stroke Ned’s nose.

Captain Harry Kane became so fond of the horse, “he wanted to buy it”, says an insider.

Ellis chose contemporary works because young players “don’t want Caravaggio”.

We reached out to the FA this morning who didn't offer any comment, but said "it is standard practice for the FA to renovate our base camp hotels at major tournaments to suit our needs."

Trump man Kelly's special relationship

John Kelly, Donald Trump’s iron-fisted chief of staff who was brought in to steady a reeling White House, is apparently a big fan of The Sun. “He reads it online every day,” says a source. Kelly has been described in the White House as a “gentleman” for scolding aides who used expletives in front of female staffers. So what first attracted him to The Sun? “Page 3,” says the source, which he was introduced to when he was stationed in Europe in the 1990s. During Trump’s recent trip to the UK, Kelly asked a Sun journalist: “What’s happened to Page 3?”

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England didn’t reach the World Cup final but Labour MP Wes Streeting was a winner. “I’ve never won a sweepstake before. This is a glorious moment,” he tweeted to Stella Creasy after winning his Parliament draw — Creasy had the runners-up Croatia. “Football might not be coming home this time,” he continued “but at least my World Cup final sweepstake winnings are.”

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Robbie Gibb, Downing Street’s director of comms, loathes the word “fudge”, say MPs in receipt of his stroppy texts. We wonder what the PM’s spinner thinks of Tony Blair’s new description of the deal: “mush”.

Pearl Harbor star Josh adds speed to sporting weekend

Actor Josh Hartnett was enjoying the sunshine yesterday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was the second leg of a weekend of sport for the Pearl Harbor star, who was among those watching the Wimbledon ladies’ final on Saturday. He was at the Sussex event on Sunday with his long-term girlfriend, St Trinian’s actor Tamsin Egerton. They were joined by presenter Ben Fogle and petrolhead Jenson Button.

Former Formula 1 driver Button is allegedly interested in Top Gear’s presenter vacancy since Friends actor Matt LeBlanc announced he would be leaving the show to spend more time with his family.

Rapper Tinie Tempah was also at Goodwood, along with Downton Abbey actress Daisy Lewis, artist Sabrina Percy and Jack Guinness, model and founder of The Queer Bible.

The climax of the annual event, held at Goodwood racecourse near Chichester, is the Cartier Style et Luxe, a presentation of the “finest cars in the world”.

SW1A

Suspicion that Michael Gove has gone soft on Brexit will be reinforced by news of a jolly seaside jaunt with arch Remainers Amber Rudd, former Home Secretary, and Ed Vaizey, ex Culture Secretary, at the weekend. Gove was in Hastings for fisheries and association events, and Vaizey was visiting friends, say sources. Rudd, the local MP, joined them for a “top Tory dinner” on Friday, and on Saturday Vaizey and Gove strolled along the pier. What fun.

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Ed Miliband’s former spinner Tom Baldwin revealed in his book Ctrl Alt Delete that Labour staffers spent £5,000 on targeted Facebook ads to convince Jeremy Corbyn that his campaign messages were popular. Now ex-adviser Tom Hamilton recalls the time “Labour sent a press release to the shadow minister quoted in it and nobody else, on the grounds that sending it to journalists was damaging”. Other aides loved the tale “Not least the suggestion that we only did it once.”

Quote of the day

'I don't think she has a passion for either Remain or Brexit, she has a passion for what's workable'

Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns trips over herself when accusing Theresa May of being "passionless" on Brexit

By Huq or by crook

Rupa Huq MP recalls being enlisted by her brother-in-law Charlie Brooker, Guardian writer and creator of sci-fi TV show Black Mirror, to try to overturn a ban on House of Commons film footage being used for satirical sketches. “I championed his cause to have the usage laws relaxed,” she told us ahead of his Black Mirror book launch, “so he could satirise MPs’ proceedings.” But, she says, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling blocked her efforts and so the bar, introduced in 1989, remains in place. She adds it was “probably good training” for Grayling “closing his ears to requests that our trains run on time”.