Foreign Secretary Raab criticised over comparing Black Lives Matter to Game of Thrones
As Dominic Raab scored his massive political ‘own goal’ over his comments about "taking the knee" it followed news which came out about a frightened Black nurse who was pulled over by police who drove in front of her in a "hard stop" operation.
She says she was targeted because of her race.
The Foreign Secretary said that the gesture of ‘taking a knee’ by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaigners "seems to be taken from TV drama Game of Thrones”. He also said it "feels to me like a symbol of subjugation, subordination, rather than one of liberation", but the act didn't feel like a symbol of "emancipation" but added "I understand people feel differently about it so it's a matter of personal choice."
Asked if he would take the knee himself Raab said that he would only take the knee for two people, "the Queen and the Mrs when I asked her to marry me".
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Raab was "probably already living to regret his words.
"It wasn't a very wise thing to say". Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy described his comments as "insulting" and "deeply embarrassing".
His stance on Black Lives Matter came as news came out about how police officers stopped Neomi Bennett in 2019 because, they said, her front windows were tinted too dark.
She was convicted of obstructing a police officer, but prosecutors later decided not to challenge her appeal.
Ms Bennett, who invented the Neo-slip device to help patients with deep vein thrombosis and was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to nursing, is now taking legal action.
The Metropolitan Police said it was "assessing a complaint in relation to this incident".
The 47-year-old said: "When the police approached me, I think my experience as a Black person is very different to that of a white person and the fear it invokes is tremendous.
"I can't even describe the fear that I experienced on that night."
She said that the officers carried out a hard stop, meaning they pulled a car up in front of her to box her in - in April 2019 - and she refused to get out of the vehicle.
She added that the manner in which she was pulled over "scared the life out of her” and, had they taken a different approach, she might have got out of her car, but instead opted to stay inside.
At first the nurse, from London, thought it was "some kind of hijack" because she could only see an officer in plain clothing. She added: "I believe I was racially profiled and certainly don't think this would have happened if I were white."
Neomi added that this was an example of what a "disproportionate number of black British citizens" have to go through.
Earlier this month, Labour leader Starmer was photographed taking the knee with his Deputy Angela Rayner.
Dominic Raab later sought to clarify his remarks tweeting: "To be clear: I have full respect for the Black Lives Matter movement, and the issues driving them.”
