Tyrone Mings has hit out at Home Secretary Priti Patel after she criticised the racist abuse of England players following the Euro 2020 final, accusing her of hypocrisy after she previously condemned their decision to take the knee.
The Three Lions were beaten on penalties by Italy at Wembley on Sunday evening in a heartbreaking shootout and the trio of players who missed from the spot – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka – were all subject to vile racist abuse soon afterwards.
Twitter removed more than 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts as the three players were bombarded with abhorrent messages, while a mural of Rashford was also defaced with racist messages.
The Home Secretary said she was ‘disgusted’ by the abuse and it had ‘no place in our country’, but just one month ago she attacked the England squad herself for their anti-racist protest of taking a knee before matches, describing it as ‘gesture politics’.
Both the players and manager Gareth Southgate always insisted there was no political message behind their act and it was purely about equality and ending racism, and Mings feels Ms Patel’s comments ‘stoked the fires’ that resulted in the abuse of Rashford, Sancho and Saka.
‘You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism messages as ‘Gesture Politics’ and then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against happens,’ wrote Mings on social media, quote-tweeting Ms Patel’s comments.
Ming was lauded for his comments, with his tweet receiving over 100,000 ‘likes’ within half-an-hour of posting it, and both the Home Secretary and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have been accused of hypocrisy over their previous criticism of England’s players taking a knee.
Continuing his statement, Mings also wrote: ‘I’m still struggling to find the words to express my emotions from the past month.
‘I’m so proud of everyone who has contributed to the joy and togetherness this team has bought to millions. We have celebrated, smiled, cried and cheered together and for that I’m so, so proud.
‘But waking up today and seeing my brothers being racially abused for being brave enough to put themselves in a position to help this country is something that sickens but doesn’t surprise me.
‘We have literally made history. We’ve gone where no one else has gone. Take that in.’
Asked if a small minority of fans were right to boo England players taking the knee, Ms Patel told GB News last month: ‘That’s a choice for them quite frankly. I’ve not gone to a football match to even contemplate that.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page
Follow Metro Sport across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
