Boris Johnson is on the wrong side of his own ‘culture war’ and he knows it – no wonder he was squirming

Public opinion has swung round in support of footballers protesting against racism, and Keir Starmer saw an opportunity to take the prime minister apart over it, says John Rentoul

Starmer made Johnson look uneasy at PMQs on Wednesday (UK Parliament)

I haven’t seen Boris Johnson look so uncomfortable in Prime Minister’s Questions for at least a year. Keir Starmer took him apart over his inconsistent position on England players taking the knee, and the prime minister didn’t like it one bit.

Before the Euro tournament began, Johnson refused to condemn fans who booed players who took the knee in their protest against racism. At the time public opinion was divided on taking the knee, and Conservatives regarded the photo of Starmer and Angela Rayner, his deputy, kneeling in the leader of the opposition’s office in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests as a mistake that would come back to haunt Labour.

Instead, public opinion has swung round in support of footballers protesting against racism, while those who booed, and those who refused to condemn those who booed, have put themselves on the wrong side of the culture war – the side of the racists who abused black players on social media after Sunday’s final.

Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former chief adviser who is now trying his hand at being a pundit, argued this morning that there was and is no “culture wars strategy”. The prime minister’s position on players taking the knee and fans booing them is just another “shambles” from someone he now represents with a picture of a shopping trolley – an insider reference to Johnson’s comment when he was trying to decide whether to back Leave or Remain that he was like a shopping trolley with a wonky wheel, veering this way and that.

Well, Johnson’s position has certainly been confused and inconsistent. After the “PM refuses to condemn booing” headlines appeared, his spokesperson was sent out with a new message, which was that no one should boo the England team. When pressed, the spokesperson even said the prime minister supported the players in their protest – a line that he repeated in more extravagant terms today: “I support them in the way they show solidarity with their friends who face racism.”

But it seems likely that there was at least a part of Johnson’s mind, as the Euros got underway, that thought most of the British public disapproved of taking the knee and that it wouldn’t do the Conservatives any harm to sound a bit sceptical about it. And it is also likely that he both had a culture war strategy and was like a wonky shopping trolley, in that he would have quickly realised that public opinion would get behind our sporting heroes – who not only played well but conducted themselves well off the field.

By then, Johnson was out of line with Priti Patel, who said taking the knee was “gesture politics” and that it was “their choice” if fans booed it.

All he could do today was defend her, telling Starmer that she “has faced racism and prejudice all her career, of a kind that he can never imagine, and she has taken practical steps to get black and minority officers into the police in record numbers”. And he used the power of the prime ministerial diktat to make two announcements. First, that those guilty of racist abuse online would be banned from football grounds (a difficult one to enforce, that). Second, that social media companies “will face fines” of 10 per cent of their global revenues if they don’t get racist abuse off their platforms (also tricky to enforce).

Those announcements may grab the headlines and distract somewhat from an abject performance in the moment. Johnson’s body language told the story, as Starmer recited all the foolish things that not just Patel but other Tory MPs had said about taking the knee. The prime minister kept his head down and muttered to himself like a sullen pupil. Starmer, lording it over the chamber, drew attention to his opponent’s discomfort. “He’s looked up,” Starmer commented at one point.

Earlier, the Labour leader had picked up an unwise Tory heckle. Starmer quoted Tyrone Mings, the England player who had made the unanswerable point on Monday that the racist abuse his teammates had suffered showed that they were justified in taking the knee. “Labour member,” said a Tory MP, possibly from behind a mask. Starmer repeated it and threw it back. “Is that really the response? Is that it?”

Starmer won the day by declaring: “The government has tried to stoke a culture war and has now realised they’re on the wrong side.”

All the prime minister could say, almost plaintively, in reply was: “I don’t want to engage in a culture war of any kind.” Not any more, he doesn’t.