England defender Tyrone Mings says Priti Patel should not 'pretend to be disgusted' by racist abuse

In a social media post the central defender who started two of England’s games in the competition said Priti Patel was pretending to be disgusted at the abuse levelled at three England players,

Aston Villa player Mings, 28, said: “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 follows his comments on June 16 in response to Ms Patel’s “refusal to defend” players taking the knee before Euro 2020 matches.

Replying to the Home Secretary’s comment that the anti-racism protest is “gesture politics”, the defender said “everybody is entitled to their own opinion”.

Earlier Baroness Warsi has accused the Government of “dog whistle” politics amid controversy over the racist abuse directed at England’s footballers.

The Yorkshire-born former chairwoman of the Tory Party said it was “time to stop the culture wars that are feeding division” as she urged Ministers to consider their role in creating a culture where footballers are racially abused.

Sir Keir Starmer yesterday accused Boris Johnson of a failure of leadership after England players were subjected to “absolutely appalling” racist abuse in the wake of their Euro 2020 final defeat.

The Labour leader criticised the Prime Minister for having “sat back” and delayed issuing criticism of the booing of the national team for taking the knee against racism in the tournament.

England stars Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were all targeted with racist abuse after they were unable to score in the penalty shoot-out against Italy on Sunday.

Mr Johnson said those responsible for the abuse “should be ashamed of themselves”, but Sir Keir said his words “ring hollow”.

Dewsbury-born Baroness Warsi tweeted in response to a message by Ms Patel, who said she was “disgusted that England players who have given so much for our country this summer have been subject to vile racist abuse”.

Ministers say the Government is looking to crack down on racist abuse online with new legislation.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Patel said social media companies have had “far too long” to take action against online abuse and they “need to take responsibility”.

“Social media companies have a clear responsibility for the content that they host on. They can no longer ignore some of the appalling, vile, racist, violent and hateful content that appears on their platforms," she said.