How will the row over racism after the Euros play out for the Conservatives?

The prime minister’s instinct for political survival seems to have been triggered by the racist response on social media to England football stars after their team’s defeat in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday. Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, the home secretary, were quick off the mark on Monday in condemning the abuse and promising to talk to the social media companies about cracking down on it.

Johnson seemed to realise that this was a dangerous moment for him, as he and Patel had both sent mixed messages about racism in football by refusing to condemn spectators who booed players taking the knee before matches.

Patel had dismissed taking the knee as a “gesture” – possibly misjudging where the battle line really lay in the culture war. She may have thought she was on safe ground in attacking the quasi-Marxist manifesto of some of the activists of the Black Lives Matter movement, but did not seem to realise that most players regard it as a simple expression of opposition to racism. The idea that Harry Kane, for example, believes that the nuclear family is an instrument of capitalist oppression stretches credulity.

Johnson’s spokesperson had a couple of uncomfortable sessions when briefing journalists, refusing to condemn fans for jeering the players. However, just before the Euro 2020 competition started, the No 10 spokesperson managed to adjust the line, saying that the prime minister wants the public to “​cheer them on, not boo” and explicitly supported players who decide to take part in the protest. Asked if Johnson backed players taking the knee, the spokesperson said: “Yes. The prime minister respects the right of all people to peacefully protest and make their feelings known about injustices.”

However, uncertainty had been sown. Johnson was quick to declare on Twitter early on Monday morning: “This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media. Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”

In the overnight briefings for journalists there was almost an air of panic. A knighthood for Gareth Southgate was under consideration. A party at No 10 for the squad, except that someone had obviously raised the possibility that some of the players might boycott it or use it as a chance to protest. What about something hosted by the royals?

But none of this was enough to deter some of the government’s critics from blaming Johnson and Patel for having tacitly encouraged the racist abuse. Unfortunately for the government, one of those critics was Tyrone Mings, an England player, who tweeted in reply to Patel on Monday night: “You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘gesture politics’ and then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.”

It was such a direct hit that Johnny Mercer, the Tory former minister, felt impelled to respond: “The painful truth is that this guy is completely right.”

This gave Labour, in the form of Angela Rayner, deputy leader, licence to say that the prime minister and the home secretary “gave licence to the racists who booed the England players and are now racially abusing England players”.

And it meant that Stephen Barclay, the duty minister for answering awkward questions on the morning media round, had a difficult time in standing up for Patel, saying that she had “repeatedly taken a stand against racism”.

But it is the prime minister who is in the most difficult position of all, having written some inflammatory things in his career as a newspaper controversialist, and – unlike the home secretary – he cannot say that as a member of an ethnic minority he has suffered racial abuse himself.

The only thing Johnson could do on Tuesday was to turn a pre-arranged meeting with social media companies into a chance to pose as delivering a stern telling-off. Whether Facebook and Twitter will actually do anything to tackle the use of their platforms by racists is unfortunately another matter.