Appearing on Sky News, the Prime Minister was outlining his hopes that the Biden administration would take climate change more seriously and commit to a policy of net zero carbon dioxide emissions. In the follow up question, Mr Johnson was asked whether he agreed with some senior politicians that “President Biden is woke?” Mr Johnson looked momentarily lost for an answer before saying it wasn’t for him to comment, but that there was “nothing wrong with being woke”.
However, he added: “I think it’s very important for everybody … certainly I would put myself in the category of people who believe it’s important to stick up for your history, your values and your traditions and things you believe in.”
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy described Joe Biden as a “woke guy” in an interview with The Guardian.
She said that the new US President had staunchly defended trans rights and the Black Lives Matter protests.
Ms Nady went on to criticise the Prime Minister for adopting the culture war tactics of Donald Trump.
In particular she took issue over Mr Johnson’s criticisms of left-wing protesters, who vandalised the statue to Winston Churchill in Parliament Square during social unrest last summer.
The demonstrators had daubed the words “was a racist” on the statue, promoting an angry response from the Prime Minister.
He said that although Winston Churchill’s views may nowadays be “unacceptable to us”, he nevertheless remained a hero for having saved the country from “fascist and racist tyranny”.
He later wrote in a tweet: “We cannot try to edit or censor our past.
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