Ban perpetrators of online racist abuse from football grounds, Labour urges

Labour has urged the government to use the online safety bill to give courts the power to ban anyone convicted of online racist abuse from attending football matches.

The opposition party has been critical of ministers’ response to abuse targeted at England players in recent weeks and days. Today, it urges the government to treat online racism in the same way as in-person offences.

“The racists who have been abusing England players online should be banned from football grounds. They do not deserve to be anywhere near a game of football,” Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Secretary Jo Stevens said.

“We need urgent action to tackle online abuse but the reality is that the government’s online safety bill will not stop racist abuse online.

“Labour would ensure that online abuse is treated in the same way as racism directed at players from the terraces is, so that these racists are brought to justice and banned from grounds.”

Football banning orders, introduced in 2000, allow magistrates to exclude offenders from attending games if convicted of a “relevant offence”. Relevant offences do not currently include those that take place online.

Following England’s defeat in the Euros final on Sunday, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were subjected to racist abuse online after the three players missed penalties in the 3-2 shootout loss against Italy.

Boris Johnson condemned the comments on social media and described them as “appalling”, but Keir Starmer said the Prime Minister’s words “ring hollow” after he failed to condemn fans booing the squad for taking the knee.

“I’m afraid the Prime Minister has failed the test of leadership because, whatever he says today about racism, he had a simple choice at the beginning of this tournament in relation to the booing of those who were taking the knee,” Starmer said.

Home Secretary Priti Patel last month dismissed England football players taking the knee as “gesture politics”, then said she was “disgusted” by the anti-Black racism seen following the Euros 2020 final.

This prompted criticism from England’s Tyrone Mings, who tweeted: “You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.”

Ministers have claimed that the government’s draft online safety bill would protect people from this kind of abuse. But Labour has described the legislation as “watered down” and warned that it would not put a stop to such conduct.

Jo Stevens called on the government earlier this week to “urgently review” its approach and ensure that social media companies are properly incentivised to tackle the hatred that has “become endemic” on their platforms.

“Social media companies’ self-regulation has to end and instead we need tough new laws,” she said. Labour has proposed measures including criminal sanctions for senior tech executives who repeatedly fail to enforce the rules in the bill.