GB News presenter Guto Harri provoked outrage among regular viewers after he took the knee live on air in an unexpected gesture of solidarity with the England football team.
Following the Euro2020 final, Harri said it made “sense” that footballers should take the knee on the field and that racism has “no place in modern Britain”.
He said he had “underestimated how close to the surface” racism still is in the country.
In one fell and incongruous swoop, Harri went down on one knee, and clumsily declared his support for the England team’s stand against racism, urging his fellow presenters to join him in the action.
“With the benefit of hindsight, I may have underestimated how close to the surface the racism still was. I actually now get it and, so much so, I think we should all take the knee – why not take the knee now,” he began.
“It’s a gesture, but it’s an important gesture. For them to be there as footballers on the field makes sense.
“Racism has no place in football and no place in modern Britain and those people think that being English is okay with being anti-black people are completely misguided and they need to know that there is no space for them in normal, acceptable society.”
Harri’s move has been met with a torrent of bizarre and antagonistic condemnation from GB News’ audience, claiming the channel had fallen into the jaws of the “woke” agenda from which it supposedly sought to break free.
The segment within which Harri took the knee was a discussion of Tyrone Mings’ accusation that Priti Patel had “stoke[d] the fire” of racism in the UK.
Tyrone Mings hit out at the home secretary after a number of England players were subjected to appalling racist abuse following the Euro2020 final.
In a similar vein, The Sun has been slammed today by social media users for telling victimised England players “we’ve got your back” in the wake of England’s defeat in the Euro2020 final.
Meanwhile, GB News viewing figures continue to plummet:
Related: ‘Don’t buy the Sun’: Redtop tells England players ‘we’ve got your back’
