Meet the antidote to today’s virtue signalling footballers leading England into World Cup battle: Courtney Lawes has proudly advocated for traditional family values and declared Britain ‘is not a racist country’
- England flanker controversially refused to take the knee for England
- He believes in marriage after his half-brother was jailed for drug offences
The man leading England into battle today has been seen by many as the antidote to today’s virtue signalling footballers.
With his no-nonsense advocacy of traditional family values and his declaration that ‘England is not a racist country’, Courtney Lawes is not someone you can liken to many a modern snowflake athlete.
These are not the views espoused by the privileged player of an elitist sport, rather those formed in a working-class mixed-race family that fought for everything they got.
His father, Linford, arrived from Jamaica as a 12-year-old and worked as a nightclub bouncer to give his children a better chance than he had.
Meanwhile his English mother Valerie worked long hours as a prison officer, often coming back to their Northampton home bruised from work.
England captain Courtney Lawes is seen by many as the antidote to virtual signalling footballers with his support for traditional family values
The 6ft6in flanker was led to his belief in marriage by his half-brother ending up in jail for drugs offences
While Lawes worked hard to become a rugby superstar for Northampton Saints and England, leading the men in white out against Argentina today, his half-brother ended up in jail for drugs offences.
The difference between their lives is why the 6ft6in flanker believes so strongly in marriage and stopping children ending up in broken homes.
He wrote: ‘While dad invested so much time in me, driving me up and down the country so I could play rugby, that was not the case for my older half-brother, my dad’s son from an earlier relationship, which unfortunately broke down.
‘My dad tried to be there for him as much as he could be. However, unfortunately that didn’t prevent my brother from adopting a bad lifestyle – drugs and criminality that eventually ended in prison.
‘I’m very thankful that he is out now and doing great for himself and raising a son of his own, but I’m forced to ask the question of how his life might have been different if he had grown up in a stable home.’
It is also what led to Lawes causing a political stir over footballer Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign in 2020.
After congratulating the Manchester United star, he asked: ‘Maybe now would be a good time to bring some attention to the importance of being financially secure and preferably married before having kids?’
This provoked a Twitter storm, with angry internet users calling on sponsors to drop him and littering his page with vile abuse.
But the forward responded by doing exactly as he said and began looking into the root causes of the issue by becoming an ambassador for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
It sees Lawes, who has four children with his property developer wife Jessica Devaney, study reports on the impact of divorce on life chances and raise awareness of the importance of stable families.
Lawes refused to take the knee for England, declaring that it wasn’t a racist country while arguing that those who tell their children life’s going to be harder because of their colour are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy
Andy Cook, CEO of the CSJ, told the Mail: ‘Courtney is brilliant. He’s been through stuff himself, you know, his life is proper punchy.
‘He takes a lot of fire because he doesn’t go with the grain, but is so refreshing to hear his viewpoint.
‘He looks at our papers and questions, is this more than about the colour of my skin? What are we creating in the way we view race?’
Most controversial was when Lawes tweeted: ‘TRIGGER WARNING: England is not a racist country. Just thought I’d clear that up.’
Explaining the message, the father-of-four who refused to take the knee for England said: ‘If you tell your kid that their life’s going to be harder because the colour of their skin then it is it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
‘I want to help change the mindset and get away from this, “I can’t do this because of my colour” to “It doesn’t matter, my colour, I can do whatever I want.”
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