Conservative MP Steve Baker urges party to back players taking the knee
Conservative MPs need to change their attitude and support footballers who take the knee, a senior figure on the right of the party has said.
Steve Baker told the BBC players were not calling to “defund the police” or being “anti-capitalist” – they were saying “we suffer racism”.
Last month, Home Secretary Priti Patel dismissed taking the knee as “gesture politics”.
Other Tories have criticised players for making the protest before games.
On the eve of the Euro 2020 tournament, education minister Gillian Keegan said the Black Lives Matter campaign “is really about defunding the police and the overthrow of capitalism” – and taking the knee was “creating division”.
Asked in June if she would criticise fans who booed England players taking the knee Priti Patel said: “That’s a choice for them, quite frankly.”
Boris Johnson has said he wants fans to cheer their team, but has not explicitly condemned fans who did boo, prompting criticism from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
On Monday, the home secretary tweeted that she was “disgusted” by the online abuse directed at some England players, after the team lost to Italy on penalties in Sunday’s Euro 2020 final.
England footballer Tyrone Mings replied that she had “stoked the fire” through her stance on taking the knee.
Responding to Mings, Conservative MP Johnny Mercer said: “The painful truth is that this guy is completely right.”
He added he was “very uncomfortable with the position we Conservatives are needlessly forcing ourselves into”.
Steve Baker, who chaired the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs, said the controversy should serve as a “wake-up call” to the Conservative Party over how it is seen in the rest of the country.
Mr Baker said he would not take the knee himself, as its connection to BLM meant its symbolism was subject to “multiple competing interpretations”.