England footballer Tyrone Mings has accused the home secretary of pretending to be disgusted by racist abuse, after she previously described taking the knee as "gesture politics". Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were targeted after they missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final.

Priti Patel said she was "disgusted" by the online abuse directed at the trio. Mings said she had "stoked the fire" by refusing to criticise fans who booed the England team for taking the knee.

Ms Patel declined to comment on his tweet. The England player and member of the Euros squad was angered by a perceived lack of action by the government when some fans booed the players taking the knee before the tournament. The act of taking the knee has become a prominent symbol in sport and during anti-racist protests in recent years, and England players have been adopting the stance at the start of their matches. Speaking to GB News about the England players' protest in June, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she did not support "people participating in that type of gesture politics".

Asked if she would criticise fans who booed England players taking the knee she said: "That's a choice for them, quite frankly". Latest as England stars respond to racist abuse I won't apologise for who I am - Rashford What is taking the knee and why was it an issue at Euro 2020? Writing on Twitter on Monday evening, Mings 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.".

Asked if Ms Patel was wrong to call taking the knee "gesture politics", Treasury minister Stephen Barclay told BBC Breakfast: "We need to respect people making their points in different ways." He added: "She is taking action in her role as home secretary to go after many of these racist groups, she is taking action against the extreme right-wing groups that foment many of these things.

"Through the online harms bill, we are committed as a government to legislating to tackle these social media platforms, who frankly should be doing far more to clamp down on this sort of unacceptable racism and abuse online." Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to hold a meeting with social media companies later to discuss online abuse. But former Premier League footballer Anton Ferdinand, himself a victim of racist abuse during his career, told the government to "sort your own house out" before going after social media platforms.

Asked if the government was doing enough, he said: "No." Ferdinand said there was no point in the government talking about what it was planning to do when as "the people that run this country" they are "not condemning" those that boo players taking the knee. He added: "How can you not condemn that, but then come out and say it's about social media?"