A right-wing Tory MP has told footballers kneeling against racism to cut out the "nonsense".
The MP for Bassetlaw Brendan Clarke-Smith was urged to “educate” himself by the boss of an anti-racism group after he hit out at kneeling England players.
The MP was celebrating England’s decision not to wear the pro-LGBT+ rights OneLove armband in their first World Cup match against Iran, after FIFA suggested it would mean an instant yellow card for skipper Harry Kane.
Mr Clarke-Smith tweeted: “Now cut out the kneeling nonsense and the rest of the selective virtue signalling and let football do the talking.”
Ged Grebby, Chief Executive of Show Racism the Red Card, told the Mirror that Mr Clarke-Smith had shown his “ignorance on a number of levels.”
He said: “Taking the knee is an anti-racist gesture. MPs should be applauding it, not having a go at it.
"They should be supporting the squad during the World Cup. His comments are the distraction here, not taking the knee.”
The anti-racism campaigner said it was a team decision to take a stand against racism, and called on MPs like Mr Clarke-Smith to “educate themselves”.
He added that the England team were unapologetically against racism: “If there is racism at this World Cup, and there will be, you can guarantee that Southgate and the England team will not be ignoring it.”
The Bassetlaw MP’s comments put him at loggerheads with No10 over the anti-racism gesture, with ministers ditching their opposition to the England team taking the knee at the start of matches.
On Monday, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he was “fine” with players making the stand against racism.
“These are their choices. It's not for the government to tell them what to do,” he said.
On the team taking the knee against racism, the Prime Minister's spokesman added: "Certainly we respect the decisions that teams or individual players make when it comes to taking the knee.
"It's very much for them to decide what they think is appropriate and we respect that."
Mr Jenrick’s comments are in contrast to last year, when ministers denounced the team’s decision.
Ahead of the Euros, Priti Patel declared: “I just don’t support people participating in that type of gesture politics.” The then Home Secretary said fans had a right to boo the England team for taking the knee.
It is not the first time Mr Clarke-Smith has courted controversy over footballers.
Amid campaigning by footballer Marcus Rashford in 2021 to secure free school meals in the summer holidays, Mr Clarke-Smith suggested families needed to be "taking responsibility.
"This means less celebrity virtue signalling on Twitter by proxy and more action to tackle the real causes of child poverty," he added.
Last summer, Tory MP Lee Anderson was widely mocked when he vowed to boycott watching the Euros over his opposition to the “political movement” of taking the knee against racism.
