On Sunday night, millions tuned in to watch the Euro 2020 final. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all missed penalties as England lost to Italy. Like clockwork, a torrent of racial abuse engulfed the Black football players on social media.
A number of politicians have tweeted support for the trio, including the home secretary. However, England footballer Tyrone Mings has been quick to call out the hypocrisy in Priti Patel’s message. In a tweet posted on Monday evening, Mings addressed Patel directly, saying: “You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ and then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.”
It wasn’t long ago that Patel refused to condemn football fans who booed as England players kneeled in protest against racial injustice. Taking the knee was dismissed by the Home Secretary as “gesture politics”. Now that her racist dog-whistling rhetoric and policies have emboldened the worst among us, she has taken to Twitter to criticise the very same people she has been trying to appease.
