Boris Johnson has said he "doesn't believe in gestures" when asked if he would take the knee in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
"I don't believe in gestures, I believe in substance," the Prime Minister said, responding to a question from Nick Ferrari on LBC radio during a discussion on diversity in the Government.
"I believe in doing things that make a practical difference."
He added: "I don’t want people to be bullied into doing things they don’t necessarily want to do.
"If you think of what happened with those officers standing at the Cenotaph…they were being insulted in quite aggressive terms by some members of the crowd and told to take the knee.
"Some of them did and it was very difficult for the others who didn’t. That’s my position. I think it's very, very important that you don't do things that make our lives difficult or embarrassing."
Mr Johnson said he wants to see better black representation at the top of the Government.
"Of course we can do more and we will do more," he said. "We need to make progress and we will. I think about this a lot. It is something I want to get right. We need to reflect the country we serve."
After Mr Johnson indicated he wouldn’t take the knee, Labour MP David Lammy responded: “Says the man who brandished a smoked kipper on stage in the Tory leadership hustings which led to him becoming Prime Minister.”
Taking the knee has become the peaceful protest symbol adopted by millions demonstrating over the death of George Floyd in the United States.
But Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the move was a "symbol of subjugation and subordination".
Last month, the Secretary of State said the gesture "seems to be taken" from the TV drama Game of Thrones.
He told TalkRadio: "I take the knee for two people: the Queen and the Mrs when I asked her to marry me."
