England stars take a knee and face surprise fan send off before Euro 2020 soccer championships: Boos

His spokesperson told NBC News that when it comes to taking a knee, he "believes in taking action rather than just making gestures."Johnson's political opponents on Friday criticized the prime minister for what they called a failure of leadership in being slow to explicitly condemn the boos towards the kneeling national soccer team.Johnson's stance and the mixed messages from his government officials were also criticized as cynical, "Trumpian" and the latest example of his bid to exploit a wider cultural debate over identity — dubbed the "woke wars" by British tabloids.One Conservative politician, Brendan Clarke-Smith, said in a Facebook post that he would be switching off his television when players kneel, adding that the Black Lives Matter movement had "sinister motives," like "crushing capitalism, defunding the police, destroying the nuclear family."Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics"There's a sporting issue as well as a culture issue," Andy Westwood, professor of government practice at the University of Manchester, told NBC News."The reason they're diving in is because it plays well to what they perceive to be their base," he said of supporters of the ruling Conservative Party and those who voted to leave the European Union.He added that Johnson's government was merely capitalizing on a nationalist sentiment that had been building for years.Championing an "anti-woke agenda" in sports, museums and on university campuses allows leaders to attack those on the "liberal left," said Westwood, but also deflect other pressures, such as the pandemic and economic fragility."It's the politics of division and polarization," he added.