A CONSERVATIVE MP has caused a storm of controversy after comparing England’s footballers “taking a knee” in a statement against racism to throwing a Nazi salute.
In a lengthy Facebook post which he termed an “article”, Brendan Clarke-Smith MP begins by condemning the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
The MP then says that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is an iteration of the same “poisonous ideology” as Ceausescu represented.
While it is not a single organisation but a broad movement, Clarke-Smith claims that BLM is “far more than simply an organisation fighting against racism”.
He accuses the movement of having “sinister motives” including “crushing capitalism, defunding the police, destroying the nuclear family and attacking Israel”.
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While being careful to say that he does not believe that England’s football players are communists, he claims that BLM is. He says that it and English football are now “inextricably linked”.
The Tory MP then compares the players’ decision to take a knee against racism ahead of playing their Euro 2020 games to the English football team in the 1930s giving a Nazi salute.
He says that these 1930s players did not want to give the Nazi salute but they were forced to and that ever “since it has been a great source of shame for many of those involved”.
The MP’s comparison has been condemned by Danny Stone, the director of the Antisemitism Policy Trust.
Stone called on the Tory party to “take action” over the post.
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He wrote: “This is an ill-considered and offensive comparison which taken together with the additional comments demonstrate an urgent requirement for education. I hope the party will take action.”
Clarke-Smith is one of the Tories who won their Westminster seats in the fall of the Labour “red wall” in 2019.
He represents Bassetlaw, a constituency in Nottinghamshire which had been held by Labour since the 1930s.
The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.
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