Football told ‘Don’t go back to bad old days of racism’

He said the failure of Liverpool forward Luis Suarez to shake hands with Manchester United’s Patrice Evra on Saturday was “incredibly depressing”.

Although the sport had made “huge strides”, recent events showed you can “never be complacent”.

The comments came as it emerged that David Cameron is to hold a Downing Street summit to discuss the issue.

The sport’s authorities and players’ representatives are due to take part in the session later this month.

Mr Hunt commented: “I would say that, as a society, one of the main reasons we have made huge strides in changing attitudes to racial discrimination is because of the changes in football.

“The lesson of the last couple of months is that you can never be complacent and the Prime Minister is very, very concerned to make sure that we don’t go back to the bad old days but also that we are absolutely on our mettle to make sure that the football authorities and the Government continue to do everything we can to stamp out this problem.”

Asked for his reaction to the spat between Evra and Suarez, Mr Hunt said: “It is incredibly depressing. It was very unsporting behaviour and I am sure the Football Association will look to see if any rules were broken.”

Mr Hunt endorsed the FA’s decision to remove the England captaincy from John Terry pending the outcome of his trial for alleged racial abuse of another player.

At a charity reception last month, Mr Cameron said many people had been “concerned by recent events” in football. “My message is clear: we will not tolerate racism in Britain. It has absolutely no place in our society and where it exists, we will kick it out.”

Comment: Page 10; Liverpool sorry: Sports Monday.