A few weeks of football heroics have forced the Tories into a tactical retreat – but fighting back will take more than optimism
Early last week, it looked like the England football team had lost to Italy but scored against Downing Street. As the abuse of England’s black footballers poured forth on Sunday and Monday and public outrage mounted, senior Tories had to shimmy away from their tacit approval of the racism that the England team had taken the knee against. Both Priti Patel and Boris Johnson distanced themselves from the earlier comments by Priti Patel and Boris Johnson, stressing that there would, of course, be zero tolerance for racism and 100% support for our brave boys.
By midweek, after Tory hardliners began to side with Tyrone Mings against Patel, and Keir Starmer rattled Johnson a bit at PMQs, there was a growing sense of excitement that the all-conquering Tory culture-war machine might be running out of steam – finally stopped in its tracks by the courage of England’s football heroes and the overwhelming decency of the majority that cheered them.
