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Priti Patel may want to brand herself as the It’s Coming Home Secretary, after praising England’s victory over Denmark in the Euros yesterday, but people have described her post on Twitter as “embarrassing” – given she previously criticised the team for “gesture politics” over taking the knee.
The anti-racist gesture was widely used last year during global Black Lives Matter protests, and has since been performed by the England squad ahead of their Euro 2020 matches.
However, in an interview with GB News last month, Patel said she didn’t support “people participating in that type of gesture politics” and dodged a question on whether she would boo the Three Lions, as some ‘fans’ of the sides have done when they’ve taken the knee.
“That’s a choice for them, quite frankly,” she said.
However, the home secretary appeared to change her stance when she took to Twitter to celebrate England’s 2-1 win against Denmark in the semi- finals, posting two fetching photos of herself in and England top, that didn’t look like a PR stunt at all:
🏴 COME ON ENGLAND 🏴 Let’s make history! #ItsComingHome https://t.co/xYytEc3zi5— Priti Patel (@Priti Patel) 1625683443
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Just brilliant. Well done #ThreeLions Football’s coming home 🏴 https://t.co/dch8wdj8jL— Priti Patel (@Priti Patel) 1625694678
People perceived her as a bit disingenuous given her previous comments and decided to let her know:
This is the woman who refused to condemn people booing this same England football team for taking the knee. Hypocri… https://t.co/sY8lezRWKs— Diane Abbott MP (@Diane Abbott MP) 1625729806
Had Priti Patel and Boris Johnson believed England would succeed would they have attacked the team for taking the k… https://t.co/k9kqpUOlji— Jo Maugham (@Jo Maugham) 1625730814
@pritipatel This tweet looks like gesture politics to me, hun https://t.co/KPW1Us5cvB— SHANE REACTION (@SHANE REACTION) 1625687934
@pritipatel Hypocrite. You gave them no support, in fact supporting booing attendees (I shan’t call them fans) - b… https://t.co/CzMQaMWDim— Fionna O'Leary, 🕯🇪🇺 (@Fionna O'Leary, 🕯🇪🇺) 1625698283
It is not the first time Patel has suffered the mirth of Twitter for celebrating the footie.
After England won their quarter-final game against Ukraine, she tweeted: “What a performance. What a team. It’s coming home.”
And people immediately called her out then, too:
@pritipatel This you? https://t.co/KMwtAEOwxX— The Secret Barrister (@The Secret Barrister) 1625347990
@pritipatel https://t.co/vy2osMuDAD— Anton 🇬🇧 🇪🇺🌹 (@Anton 🇬🇧 🇪🇺🌹) 1625347172
@pritipatel Luckily you weren’t in charge of the Home Office when the majority of these young men’s parents and grandparents arrived.— Open Mind (@Open Mind) 1625346862
@pritipatel Get off the bandwagon, please. It's embarrassing.— Julian Shea (@Julian Shea) 1625346955
'Priti Patel has said she does not support England football players taking the knee in protest of racism and that f… https://t.co/5tDYk4bV1x— James Oh Brien (@James Oh Brien) 1625346751
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also been mocked for his support, which some believe is far from natural and genuine. At the game on Wednesday, he wore a football shirt on top of a shirt and tie, which people found hilarious.
Patel is likely to face more criticism if she continues to tweet ahead of the final, in which England will face Italy on Sunday.
Ironically, for a government minister responsible for the rule of law, when it comes to her support for the England team, people are questioning her conviction.