Comedian Andrew Lawrence has reportedly been dropped by his agent after tweeting a racist joke about England’s Black footballers.
Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho have been subjected to racist abuse following England’s defeat against Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
On Monday 13 July, Lawrence tweeted: “All I’m saying is, the white guys scored.” He added: “Equality, diversity, s*** penalties.”
When criticised for his comments, he responded: “I can see that this has offended a lot of people, and I’m sorry that black guys are bad at penalties.”
Richard Bucknall, the founder of Lawrence’s former agency RBM, has now told Chortle that they “no longer represent Andrew Lawrence”.
A number of venues have also announced they have cancelled Lawrence’s shows for his forthcoming tour.
Chesham Comedy Club in Buckinghamshire tweeted to him: “I know you won’t particularly care, but we at Chesham Comedy club will not tolerate racism in any form so please consider your booking with us cancelled.”
Lawrence’s Twitter account appears to have been deleted.
Uefa, along with several high-profile celebrities and public figures including Boris Johnson, have condemned the racist abuse of England’s players.
Writing on the official Little Mix Twitter account on Monday (12 July), band member Leigh-Anne Pinnock – who earlier this year fronted BBC Three documentary Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power – shared a black and white photo of Rashford, Sancho, Raheem Sterling and Saka.
“You can live here but be quiet,” she wrote. “You can work here but not all of you. You can speak at the table but not too loud. You can play for us but you can’t lose.”
Pinnock continued: “Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Black British Experience. We stand with you Kings x Leigh.”
