Labour will use an Urgent Question in Parliament to put pressure on the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to update Parliament on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media faced by Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, will criticise the Government’s inaction over tackling racism online and call out the Home Secretary for not backing England players for making a stand against racial inequality.
Labour’s Urgent Question has been granted on the same day the party issues a demand to the Government to give courts the power ban anyone convicted of racist abuse online from attending football matches.
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, is likely to outline that the Government’s approach has “lacked urgency and completely failed to understand the scale of the revulsion that exists.” He will go on to say that the “England Men’s football players have been a credit to the country on and off the pitch.”
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, said:
“The long awaited Online Harms Bill has been continuously promoted as a way to solve this problem by the Government but, not only do delays mean it is unlikely to come into force before 2024, but the current bill would not stop this vile abuse.
“The racist abuse on social-media faced by our England players is unacceptable, social-media companies need the toughest of sanctions to do more to take down this awful material.
“The time for change is now, more delays will only prolong the abuse that takes place on social media. This must be a priority for the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.”
