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Euro 2020

04th Jul 2021

Priti Patel accused of ‘faux pride and support’ for England team

Home Secretary Priti Patel has been accused of exhibiting 'faux pride and support' for the England football team after their 4-0 win over Ukraine

Kieran Galpin

Controversy incarnate just won’t shush!

Home Secretary Priti Patel has been accused of exhibiting ‘faux pride and support’ for the England football team after their 4-0 Euro 2020 hammering of Ukraine.

After England’s triumphant victory last night, Patel took to Twitter to share her support for the team. Her Twitter feed borders on something Trumpian at times, complete with the obligatory header that reads “New plan for immigration”.

This is probably the first time Patel has used the England flag emoji outside of anti-immigration meets. But users online have been quick to rebuke the home secretary’s outpouring of support for the England team.

England rugby legend Brian Moore hit the nail on the head with this one:

Angela Rayner had the following to say:

Patel has been overtly critical of just about anything as of late. Though her focus is on keeping immigrants out of the country, she has still found the time to watch the Euros by literally any means necessary. Thankfully, she hasn’t been shy in sharing her opinions that everyone just can’t wait to hear. She said the following to GB News:

“I just don’t support people participating in that type of gesture – gesture politics, to a certain extent, as well.

“It’s all well to support a cause and make your voices heard but actually quite frankly, and we saw quite frankly in particular as some of the protests that took place – I speak now very much in what I saw in the impact on policing – it was devastating.

“Not only that, I just don’t subscribe to this view that we should be rewriting our history – pulling down statues, the famous Colston statue, and what’s happened there. Toppling statues is not the answer, it’s about learning from our past, learning from our history and actually working together to drive the right outcome.”

Someone might want to email Patel the following graphic, as she might change her position once she realises that immigration (and the opportunity England provides) is one of the reasons behind England’s success.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQwT79gIsBX/