'We're used to rain': Britain's Starmer shrugs off defiant Paris Olympics image
Starmer was the only person bare-headed as other VIPs opted for handout ponchos
PARIS: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Saturday brushed off the fascination with a viral image taken at the Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony showing him as the only dignitary not wearing a protective plastic poncho during driving rain.
Starmer was pictured as the only person bare-headed as other VIPs opted to encase themselves in plastic hand-out ponchos to protect themselves from the rain that blighted Friday's opening ceremony on the River Seine.
The image was widely shared on social media, with users seeing the picture as a classic example of a very British stiff upper lip in the face of the inclement weather all to familiar to residents of the famously drizzly country.
"It's British! We are used to the rain," Starmer told French channel LCI in an interview.
"But it (the rain) didn't dampen the spirits," he added, describing the opening ceremony as a "spectacular" and "fantastic" event that made "the whole use of the river (and) of Paris."
Starmer, elected earlier this month in a landslide election victory for the centre-left Labour Party that ended 14 years of right-wing Conservative rule, was making his first official visit to Paris as premier.
"Nothing more British than absolutely refusing to wear one of those plastic poncho things," wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter.
Rain has had considerable symbolism in British politics in recent weeks.
When he called the general election, Conservative former prime minister Rishi Sunak was widely mocked for delivering his address outside 10 Downing Street in pouring rain without a coat or an umbrella.
Starmer was however wearing a navy blue Team GB rain-proof jacket and in other images could also be seen using its hood to protect his hair from the rain.
"Preparation is the key to success," the Labour Party wrote on X as it posted one of these images.