Eagle-eyed viewers tuning in for Keir Starmer’s resignation speech today have already spotted the man who has been dubbed ‘hot podium guy’. 

Swooning tweets flooded in as the sound technician from Kent appeared on screen, with one user writing: ‘Rejoice! Hot Podium Guy has been spotted’ and another: ‘Yes! First sighting of Hot Podium Guy.’ 

Fears that he wouldn’t show up yesterday were quelled, after rumours had swirled that incoming prime minister Andy Burnham would be delivering his first speech as leader podium-free. 

One person wrote: ‘Sounds like Andy Burnham, in an attempt to be different, is going podium free and thus denying us a second viewing of hot podium guy, one of our recent national traditions.

‘This does not show a finger on the pulse and does not bode well.’

The engineer, from Longfield, in Kent, has been dubbed ‘hot podium guy’ since he first started gaining an army of adoring fans in 2019 when he appeared in a tight black T-shirt before Theresa May announced her departure. 

He has been sending the nation into a fevered frenzy throughout times of political turmoil for the last seven years. 

And having now outlasted five Prime Ministers, muscular sound technician Tobias Gough has become the antidote to the teary-eyed resignation speeches of Britain’s leaders. 

Tobias Gough (aka ‘hot podium guy’) appeared on screens this morning ahead of Keir Starmer’s resignation 

Swooning tweets quickly came in from eagle-eyed viewers, who have been fans of the engineer from Kent for years 

It led his wife, Tina, to contact the Mail in May 2019 to shut down the hopes of his many admirers on social media, saying: ‘He’s my husband!’

Yet it still hasn’t stopped people from swooning over Gough every time he appears outside No10. 

Today, he will be testing the microphone ahead of Keir Starmer’s final speech as prime minister before the former Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, takes over as leader. 

After Keir Starmer delivers his speech, Mr Burnham will hold the stage and deliver his own speech in Downing Street. He is set to promise ‘more breathing room’ for Britain, while arguing for a more ‘stable and responsible’ politics. 

But all eyes will be drawn to hot podium guy first and foremost – who already had viewers buzzing this morning. 

One user described him as ‘the one constant of British politics’, while another simply said: ‘Hot podium guy!!!!’ 

Another concerned user asked: ‘No lecturn for Burnham? I hope he’s not making hot podium guy redundant!’  

The last sighting of ‘hot podium guy’ was last month, on June 22, when Keir Starmer delivered another emotional resignation speech accompanied by his family and staff.

As always, it was the hotly anticipated arrival of the hunky Gough that had Brits salivating. As he arrived, his muscles bulging as he hauled in the lectern, the nation went into a predictable meltdown. 

One social media user quipped that Gough was the ‘only one’ at Downing Street ‘whose approval rating is still rising’.

While another admired his muscle-toned body and suggested: ‘Podium guy looks like he’s been in the gym since the last time this happened.’

Others hoped he would become Britain’s next Prime Minister, and said ‘he will have lots of fans’.

Meg wrote on X: ‘But may make a certain US leader very jealous.’