Boris Johnson rules out a bank holiday in honour of England’s Euro 2020 heroes
Boris Johnson has ruled out having a bank holiday to celebrate England's Euro 2020 squad.
Downing Street said a bank holiday is not being considered to celebrate England reaching the final, where they lost to Italy on penalties on Sunday evening.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said on Monday: “We’ll be talking to the FA to identify a suitable way for the prime minister to thank the players and coaching staff for their efforts.
“But a bank holiday is not something that is being considered.”
There had been pressure on Johnson to give the country a bank holiday if England had won the final.
The team lost to Italy on penalties after the game finished 1-1 after extra time.
A petition on the Parliament website to grant the nation a bank holiday if England won the final reached more than 364,000 signatures.
Watch: Gareth Southgate condemns 'unforgivable' racist abuse of England players
Following England’s semi-final win over Denmark last week, the prime minister’s official spokesman had said: “I don’t want to pre-empt the outcome of Sunday’s match.
“Clearly we want England to go all the way and win the final, and then we will set out our plans in due course.
“We will hopefully, when England go on to win, then go on to set out our plans.”
Instead of looking forward to a bank holiday, the nation is coming to terms with the aftermath of a final that made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
There has been widespread condemnation of the online racist abuse of three Black England players who missed penalties in Sunday's shootout.
The social media pages of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Buyako Saka were all targeted by online trolls posting racist abuse.
Johnson condemned the abuse but was criticised by football pundit Gary Neville for having previously failed to condemn people who booed England players for taking a knee before matches.
The three players received a deluge of supportive messages from fans, politicians, Southgate, the England team, the Football Association, UEFA and the Duke of Cambridge.
Watch: Gary Neville criticises Boris Johnson after racist abuse of England players
The Metropolitan Police said it will be investigating “offensive and racist” social media posts directed towards members of the England football team following the match.
In a tweet, the force said: “We are aware of a number of offensive and racist social media comments being directed towards footballers following the Euro 2020 final.
“This abuse is totally unacceptable, it will not be tolerated and it will be investigated.”
Twitter said it had proactively removed more than 1,000 posts over the past 24 hours which violated its policy and also taken swift action to permanently suspend a number of accounts.
“The abhorrent racist abuse directed at England players last night has absolutely no place on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
Facebook, which owns Instagram – said on Monday: “No one should have to experience racist abuse anywhere, and we don’t want it on Instagram.
“We quickly removed comments and accounts directing abuse at England’s footballers last night and we’ll continue to take action against those that break our rules.”
The Metropolitan Police made 49 arrests across London as part of its Euros final operation, and 19 officers were injured in violent clashes.
Watch:England hooligans shame nation
