The sports minister has been accused of ignoring her own safety experts after claiming safe-standing sections would not necessarily tackle the refusal of thousands of spectators to sit during football matches.

Tracey Crouch was also mocked for asserting that it was only a “vocal minority” who wanted to see the return of standing to the English game days after it emerged she had blocked an application by West Bromwich Albion to introduced so-called rail seating to the Hawthorns.

She did so despite the plan being submitted by the deputy chair of the Football Safety Officers Association and backed by the club’s Safety Advisory Group - members of which include representatives of West Midlands Police and of the Government’s own national stadium safety body, the Sports Ground Safety Authority.

Her decision also came months after ministers were warned by the man in charge of football stadium safety in the UK that they needed to address supporters’ desire to stand during matches “before something goes wrong”.

Ken Scott, the chief inspector of the SGSA, admitted back in September that attempts over 15 years to enforce the all-seater policy brought in by the Government following the Hillsborough disaster were “not working”, that the problem was “getting worse”, and that so-called safe-standing areas would be “safer”.