Sir Keir Starmer, the opposition leader, quipped that he signed Declan Rice for Arsenal before he joined the Gunners.

Rice, 25, departed West Ham this summer to join Mikel Arteta’s squad. And he has helped to overhaul Arsenal’s midfield as they seek their first Premier League title in two decades.

However, as an avid Arsenal fan, Starmer has now claimed he had a hand in recruiting the Englishman for his beloved Gunners. The Labour leader told The Daily Telegraph: “So, when we played away at West Ham last year, and Declan was still a West Ham player, I took my son.”

“Mark Noble, Mr West Ham [now the club’s sporting director], took us down to meet Declan. And so my boy had his programme open ready for signing and obviously we put the contract [for Arsenal] in underneath!

“Declan signed it and thought he was signing the programme, but actually he was signing for Arsenal!”

Rice put pen-to-paper on a £105million deal last summer, and he has gone on to make 35 appearances in the Premier League – chipping in with six goals and eight assists.

Starmer has tried to be at as many of those games as possible, and he admits he “religiously” puts the Gunners’ fixtures in his diary when they are released every June. But he added: “So, you think you have secured a slot with the team in the diary… And then it gets moved to a Sunday or worse a Friday!”

If Pep Guardiola’s side win their remaining games they will win their fourth title on the spin, and sixth in seven years.