During an interview on Thursday with talkRadio’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, Raab was asked if he would “take the knee” - a gesture that has been taken up by anti-racism supporters across the world in a show of solidarity with the Black lives Matter movement. Raab suggested that he would refuse if requested.

A whole host of people, from police forces to politicians and, more recently, English Premier League footballers, have ‘taken the knee’ in the last few weeks, against a backdrop of protests and riots, sparked by the death of 46 year-old black American George Floyd in May.

Somewhat bizarrely, the foreign minister suggested that the origins of the now-iconic act may have come from the Game of Thrones TV series.

Raab said he understood other people might feel differently to him about the gesture, but that he was of the view the action symbolized “subjugation and subordination, rather than liberation or emancipation.”