‘Bandwagon’ Boris and Priti Patel in showdown with footballers over racist abuse

Ministers face football racism row after failing to back England players taking the knee

Gareth Southgate and England players in Euro 2020
Gareth Southgate speaks with players ahead of penalties during the Euro 2020 final
(Image credit: Marc Atkins/Getty Image)

Boris Johnson and Priti Patel have been accused of hypocrisy in their condemnation of racist abuse targeted at the England footballing squad’s penalty takers.

The prime minister and home secretary spoke out against social media attacks on Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho, who all missed penalties in the nail-biting Euro 2020 final at Wembley on Sunday night.

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 Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.