Labour has urged Boris Johnson’s government to ban anyone convicted of racist abuse online from attending football matches.
The government is under pressure to do more to tackle racist vitriol on social media after several members of the England team received abuse in the wake of the Euros defeat to Italy.
Home secretary Priti Patel – under fire for refusing to back England players’ stance against racism – will be grilled by MPs on Wednesday about what ministers are doing to ensure stronger action is taken.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party wants the government to use the upcoming Online Safety Bill to give courts the power to ban anyone convicted of racist abuse online from gaining entry into football grounds.
Shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens said changes were needed so online racism is treated in the same way as racism on the terraces, since Football Banning Orders do not currently cover offences taking place online.
“The racists who have been abusing England players online should be banned from football grounds,” said Ms Stevens. “They do not deserve to be anywhere near a game of football.”
“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.”
The Online Harms Bill will put a new legal duty of care on online companies to protect their UK users from harm, including people receiving abusive comments, threats and harassment online.
Labour said the government’s upcoming bill was “weak” and in its current form “would do nothing to prevent this disgusting abuse from being published on social media”.
As well as the extension of Football Banning Orders, Labour called for the bill to introduce criminal sanctions for senior social media executives for repeated failure to enforce the rules.
Former FA chairman Lord Triesman backed a ban from football grounds for the “scum” convicted of such crimes. Pressing for a “one strike and they are out” approach, the crossbench peer said there should be “no excuses, no second chances”.
On Tuesday Mr Johnson met with representatives from social media firms and urged them to take tougher action over racism after the abuse of England players, which he described as being “from the dark spaces of the internet”.
He was expected to tell them to do “everything they can” to identify those responsible for racist abuse of England players.
A petition started by Katie Price – which calls for there to be a legal requirement that personal accounts on social media sites are linked to a verified form of ID – has attracted more than 630,000 signatures.
Both Mr Johnson and Ms Patel have come in for some heavy criticism for refusing to back England players’ stance against racism.
Tory MP Johnny Mercer backed England player Tyrone Mings after he accused Ms Patel of “stoking the fire” of racism – saying the football star is “completely right”.
Labour has tabled an urgent question to ask Ms Patel to make a statement about the prevalence of racist abuse on social media after PMQs on Wednesday.
It comes as senior Tory MP Steve Baker warned that the party urgently needs to “challenge” its attitude towards people taking the knee, telling his colleagues: “This is a decisive moment for our party”.
A letter from anti-racism group Conservatives Against Racism For Equality group (CARFE), which boasts nine MPs on its board, claimed MPs’ actions may have “laid the foundations” for some of the racist abuse levelled at England players.
