Robert Jenrick backs Reform council refusing to support football anti-racism campaign day
Jenrick said that the Reform council leader made a ‘very fair point’ in refusing to support Wear Red Day
Reform MP Robert Jenrick has backed Sunderland City Council’s decision to refuse to support Wear Red Day, a campaign day run Show Racism the Red Card.
In a series of posts on X, Jenrick also suggested that the council was right to pull funding from anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card.
However, the charity has made clear that the current administration was not providing any funding to the organisation and that it has only withdrawn its support for Wear Red Day on 16 October.
James Kingett, North East education manager at Show Racism the Red Card, told Left Foot Forward that the charity has not yet had a conversation with the current leadership about funding, but “we would speculate that this is not a good sign”.
The Reform leader of Sunderland City Council, Chris Eynon, said in a council meeting that the council would not be supporting Wear Red Day this year due to comments the anti-racism charity’s CEO Ged Grebby has posted about Reform online.
In the meeting, Eynon read out some posts Grebby had published on X that were critical of Reform, including him saying that “Reform is a very very dangerous organisation” and that “racists have been emboldened by Farage”.
Jenrick accused Grebby’s X account of being “a sewer of anti-Reform rants”.
The Tory turncoat turned Reform MP said that given Reform won 58 out of the 72 seats on the council in May, “Residents would be right to question whether this organisation should be supported financially by their council under Mr Grebby’s leadership”.
However, Jenrick’s claim overlooks the fact that Show Racism the Red Card is not currently “supported financially” by the Reform-run council.
Jenrick made the comments on X after he refused to say whether he supported Show Racism the Red Card in an interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari.
Asked if he agreed with Eynon’s claims that Show Racism the Red Card is a “politically charged organisation with an agenda”, Jenrick said: “I don’t know, Nick, what lies behind that.”
Pressed on whether he thinks the football anti-racism initiative is “politically charged”, Jenrick repeated that he didn’t know “the evidence” behind the comments.
He then added: “Do I think it’s reasonable Nick, for a local authority to make choices about what charities and organisations they support? Yes, absolutely.”
Ferrari asked if Jenrick supported driving racism out of football. Jenrick responded: “The aim is obviously laudable but I don’t know what lies behind the decision.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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