Newcastle United official hits out after controversial St James' Park footage emerges with former owner

Hall was the owner of Newcastle during a transformative period in the 1990s before selling the club to Mike Ashley in 2007. The 91-year-old is also a vocal supporter and donor towards the Conservative Party and was filmed at St James’ Park with the party’s new leader candidate Robert Jenrick in a video released this week.

Jenrick shared the video of himself speaking to Hall on X along with the caption: “Great to meet with Sir John Hall, a true champion of Newcastle and the North East.”

The Conservative leader candidate even joked that he could be ‘signed up’ by Newcastle to which Hall replied: “We couldn’t afford you.”

This comes as the club have failed to make any signings during the final weeks of the summer transfer window. And the club have officially responded to the video released by Jenrick, which has received criticism from some supporters on social media.

Newcastle’s head of communications Lee Marshall suggested the club were misled regarding the reasons behind Hall’s presence at St James’ Park.

“This was not approved by anyone connected with Newcastle United,” he wrote on X. “The club was told Sir John wished to film a biographical piece on his own life.”