One of the Members Of Parliament for Southampton has confirmed that he will back safe standing in the debate in Parliament.
Royston Smith the Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen has come out in support of safe standing at football grounds.
The plans to bring safe standing back to top-flight English football stadia will be debated by the government today, which could pave the way for Saints to introduce it at St Mary’s.
The Football Supporters Federation have been at the forefront of the campaign and they have been joined by MPs, campaigners, and fans, including member for Southampton Itchen Royston Smith, who have been piling pressure on Westminster to allow the installation of safe-standing ‘seats’.
These would allow fans to support their team by standing during matches. However, standing in English football’s top two divisions was outlawed by the Football Spectators’ Act in 1989, following recommendations made in the Taylor Report on the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans.
The last terraced area at Southampton was knocked down in the summer of 1994 and replaced by an all seated stand at the Milton Road end of the ground, the third structure at that end of the ground in a little over a dozen years, although the first to feature seats.
The Tory MP said.
"I am in favour of safe standing — the operative word being ‘safe’,”
"There are other places that already do it and it can be done safely.
"But bringing it back doesn’t mean forgetting about the past.
"Currently, at St Mary’s fans in the Northam section stand every game, and no one ever gets hurt.
"However, that is not the safest way of standing in this sense, so if it was made safe then that is only a good thing.
"But if we want to see how standing in a safe way already works, we just need to look at the Northern stand.”
The debate in Parliament comes after more than 100,000 people backed a safe standing petition.
The issue was also debated by Southampton city councillors who agreed that council leader Chris Hammond would write to the "appropriate authorities” to discuss how it can be taken further.