Loose Women’s Coleen Nolan ‘ashamed and heartbroken’ after seeing Brenda Edwards ‘so upset’ by racism

Loose Women star Coleen Nolan has said that she feels ‘ashamed and heartbroken’ to see her friend Brenda Edwards ‘so upset’ over racism following England’s Euro 2020 final against Italy.

While speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said that he ‘utterly condemns and abhors’ the racist abuse that Black members of England’s men’s football team have faced following their defeat after a penalty shootout.

The Prime Minister stated that if people are ‘guilty of racist abuse online of footballers’ then they will be banned from football matches, ‘no ifs, no buts, no exemptions and no excuses’.

On Wednesday’s edition of Loose Women, the panel discussed the notion of banning monkey and banana emojis as one measure to combat online racism, with Brenda saying that while it may help, ‘more needs to be done’ by social media companies to put a stop to the ‘graphic’ content and ‘slurs’ shared by racist trolls.

Coleen said that in her opinion, ‘words are more hurtful than an emoji’, stating: ‘The very unintelligent, braindead people that are doing this, I’m not sure anything’s going to help except to get them off social media, maybe fines.’

The TV presenter continued, saying she’s ‘at a loss’ and ‘so shocked about the whole thing, that this is still happening’.

Brenda said she felt ‘exhausted’ by the barrage of racism after the Euro 2020 final (Picture: ITV)

Gesturing towards Brenda, Coleen said: ‘To see one of my best friends be so upset by the whole thing, you know, literally in tears, breaks my heart and makes me ashamed,’ as Brenda nodded.

Kaye Adams asked Brenda whether seeing the heartfelt tributes left for Marcus Rashford at the mural of the footballer in Manchester, which was defaced after the Euro 2020, gave her ‘comfort’.

‘It gives me comfort,’ Brenda responded. ‘I was great going into watching the football match. I was all there in my England shirt, ready backing and everything. And it’s just a shame that there are a minority of people that just take all that positivity and whitewash it with negative things.’

Brenda added that she felt ‘absolutely exhausted by it’, saying that she wants ‘some respect’.

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‘I just think we all need to have some respect for each other as human beings,’ she said.

‘Boris, put this into play. I really hope you put your money where your mouth is and do something about it.’

Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.

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