Entertainment
Deborah Meaden and Adil Ray give withering responses to Boris Johnson for his controversial England racism tweet
Many are not impressed with the Prime Minister’s reaction to racist abuse against the England team (Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)
Dragons’ Den’s Deborah Meaden and Good Morning Britian’s Adil Ray were among the stars criticising Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s tweet about the racism aimed at the England men’s team.
Mr Johnson wrote that fans who were racially abusing members of the England team ‘should be ashamed of themselves’.
After a tense Euro 2020 final at Wembley, England lost 3-2 to Italy in a penalty shootout and footballers who missed their shots, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, have been subject to vile racist abuse in the aftermath.
However, many have been quick to slam Mr Johnson’s response, both for its careful tone and when taken in the context of what he himself has both said and written before.
‘Not sure you are particularly well placed to talk on this subject,’ commented Dragon Meaden in her reaction to the PM’s tweet proclaiming that the England team should ‘be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media’.
GMB’s Ray referenced specific historic comments by Johnson when he quoted his tweet, writing: ‘Piccaninnies & watermelon smiles, Prime Minister?’
Football pundit and former Liverpool player Stan Collymore labelled him ‘enabler number 1’, while Gary Neville, who was busy providing expert views on the final for ITV’s broadcast, leapt on Sky News’ banner about the prime minister’s Twitter response during a live interview on Monday morning.
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‘Well, I’m just reading your breaking news, and it says the PM condemns racist abuse of England players,’ the former England player commented.
‘Is that the same Prime Minister that a few weeks ago… Gareth Southgate and the players a few weeks ago, about five days on the trot, told us that they were taking the knee to promote equality, and it was against racism.
‘The prime minister said that it was okay for the population of this country to boo those players who were trying to promote equality and defend against racism.’
Saying that ‘it starts at the very top’, Neville went to state that he ‘wasn’t surprised in the slightest’ to wake up to the headlines about players receiving racist abuse.
GMB presenter Susanna Reid also hit out at Mr Johnson early on Monday morning, slamming his tweet for ‘sound[ing] like a slightly disappointed parent’.
‘I mean for goodness sake, it’s got to be a bit more than “You should be ashamed of yourself”’, she continued.
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Her colleague Richard Madeley called to ‘lock away’ racist social media users, as he condemned them as ‘a disgusting distortion of what this country now is today’.
The FA also issued a response in the early hours of Monday morning, noting that it was ‘appalled’ by the online racism and would be doing ‘all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible’.
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