Nike's 2024 England kit sparks fury from Jeremy Vine and Tom Skinner as St George's Cross is changed

The controversial redesign of the flag on the England kit has drawn the ire of daytime TV hosts and football fans alike.

Nike has redesigned the St George's Cross on the new 2024 England shirt, with a multicoloured cross on the back of the collar. The decision has sparked a culture war on social media, with fans, politicians and other celebrities voicing their anger at the change.

On his Channel 5 show this morning (22 March) Jeremy Vine said: "They've redesigned the St George's Cross and people are really quite angry about it.

"Of course it is the England flag - the red cross of St George can be traced back to the Middle Ages, so there's a lot of history. We've got to mention flag desecration laws, we don't have any against burning or desecrating our flag but what have they done with the St George's Cross. Nike say it's a playful update, but people are furious about it. There's now this "boycott Nike" call and there have been thousands of tweets about it."

On ITV's Good Morning Britain, TV personality Tom Skinner said: "Let's be honest - you go to the football, you wear the shirt with pride. You're supporting England and that's the whole point of buying the shirt. You're proud of England and yet all of a sudden they've changed it. For what reason? It's nuts, it's bonkers - leave the flag alone."

On The Sun's new show, Never Mind The Ballots, Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "Yes it was [wrong]. I'm a big football fan, I go to England games, men, women's games. The flag is used by everybody, it's unifying, it doesn't need to change. We just need to be proud of it. So I think they should just reconsider this and change it back. I'm not even sure they can properly explain why they thought they needed to change it in the first place."

On Sky News, shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry added: "It's all very peculiar, I think. The England flag is a symbol of unity with the Lionesses and so on. You wouldn't expect Nike to go off and change the Welsh flag from a dragon to a pussycat. Why are they doing it? I don't understand."