BORIS JOHNSON bowed to pressure to do more to tackle racism today after more than a million people signed a petition calling for online racists to be banned permanently from attending football matches.

The Prime Minister said he would ensure that football banning order rules are changed after Labour and campaigners demanded action following a tide of abuse directed at England players in the wake of Sunday’s Euro 2020 final. 

The orders can be used to ban someone from attending matches for up to 10 years, but they do not currently cover online incidents.

Football fans Shaista Aziz, Amna Abdullatif and Huda Jawad created the petition in response to racist abuse aimed at Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho after the Three Lions’ defeat to Italy on penalties.

Ms Jawad said: “This is not our petition, this is the nation speaking and saying this is not OK and enough is enough.

“It’s not about just educating people and having a softly-softly approach, this is the point where we are very clear about our red lines.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer warned that the Prime Minister’s promise to act “rings hollow” following his previous refusal to condemn fans who booed the England team for taking the knee against racism.

During angry exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions today, Sir Keir said that ministers’ plans to stoke a culture war had backfired.

“They’ve realised they’re on the wrong side and now they’re hoping nobody has noticed,” the Labour leader charged.

Despite government condemnation of the abuse, Sir Keir said that Home Secretary Priti Patel had condemned players taking the knee as an example of “gesture politics” just last month.

In a tweet on Tuesday, England star Tyrone Mings stressed that this had “served to stoke the fire of racism and hatred.”

Sir Keir said to the PM: “They’re powerful words from someone who has himself been subjected to racist abuse. He’s right, isn’t he?”

Avoiding the question, Mr Johnson claimed that the players had his full support.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner slammed Tory MPs for heckling Sir Keir during the exchanges about Mr Mings, with shouts of “Labour member” heard. 

She tweeted: “If the Tories gave a toss about racism, they would suspend the MP who heckled. Racism isn’t about party politics. Disgusting.”

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford brought up some of Mr Johnson’s widely condemned comments before he took office, including his infamous newspaper article referring to Africans as “flag-waving piccaninnies with watermelon smiles.”

“The truth is that the Tory Party doesn’t sanction those who publish racist content, it promotes them to be Prime Minister,” Mr Blackford said.  

“This Tory government doesn’t get to condemn the racism of others but deny the racism that it has provoked.”

In an urgent question following PMQs, shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds demanded that ministers finally bring forward the long-delayed Online Safety Bill to ensure that there is no repeat of Sunday’s abuse.

He pressed for criminal sanctions against senior social media executives to be included in the proposed legislation.

In response, Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins said that the Bill would help to address online abuse when it is introduced, but she gave no timetable.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was forced to intervene when it emerged that no black MPs had been included in the group randomly chosen to contribute to the debate on the urgent question.

Labour’s Florence Eshalomi — a black MP later selected to speak – warned that “racist incidents online do not exist in a vacuum” but are part of a world where 95 per cent of black children say they have witnessed racism.

Her party colleague Olivia Blake attacked the government’s failure to act, accusing it of being in denial on the issue. 

The debate came as senior Tory backbencher Steve Baker called on colleagues to change their attitude towards taking the knee, saying that the fallout from Sunday is a “wake-up call” on how their party is seen by the country.