The British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, criticising the gesture, which has been at demonstrations around the world since the death of George Floyd, said ‘feels to me like a symbol of subjugation and subordination rather than one of liberation and emancipation’.
He accepted other people ‘feel differently’ and insisted he understood the ‘frustration’ felt by oppressed communities, but added: ‘I take the knee for two people, the Queen and the Mrs when I asked her to marry me.’
The comments, in an interview with TalkRadio this morning, drew immediate anger, with MPs including Labour’s Diane Abbott expressing disbelief that Mr Raab did not know the origins of the protest.
Asked about ‘taking the knee’, the Foreign Secretary said: ‘I understand this sense of frustration and restlessness which is driving the Black Lives Matter movement.
