Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted that the Falkland Islands are “British” and accused Argentina of exploiting football to make a political statement after its players displayed a banner asserting the country’s claim to the disputed territory following their World Cup semi-final victory over England.

Her remarks came as FIFA confirmed its independent disciplinary committee was assessing match reports and the surrounding circumstances to determine whether Argentina breached its rules prohibiting political messages on the field of play.

Backing calls for an investigation, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government maintained that the Falklands’ status was not up for debate.

Downing Street said, “The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” while Business Minister Peter Kyle described the banner display as “an egregious violation” of FIFA rules and said, “Politics needs to be separate from football.”

Reacting in a video posted on X on Friday, Badenoch said, “The Falkland Islands are British. The Conservatives will always defend them. We know that political messaging and slogans are banned by FIFA, so they absolutely should investigate. It was a very silly banner.

“The fact is the Falkland Island are British and the Conservatives will never stop defending the Falklands. We did it before and we’d do it again.”

Argentina’s players unfurled a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (The Falklands are Argentine) after their 2-1 victory over England in Atlanta, reigniting the long-running sovereignty dispute between Britain and Argentina.

The Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, have remained at the centre of competing claims for decades. The dispute culminated in the 1982 Falklands War, a 74-day conflict in which 649 Argentines, 255 British servicemen and three islanders were killed.

Similar incident in 2014
FIFA has previously punished Argentina over a similar incident.

In 2014, the Argentine Football Association was fined after the national team displayed the same banner before an international friendly against Slovenia, with the governing body ruling that the act breached its regulations on political messages and team misconduct.

Badenoch also used the controversy to criticise the Labour government over its Chagos Islands agreement, arguing that the Conservatives would never take the same approach to the Falklands.