The bounds of cabinet collective responsibility clearly don’t apply when it comes to the culture wars. Either that or Priti Patel is deliberately choosing to ignore them…

In an interview yesterday for GB News, Patel claimed the England team were engaging in “gesture politics” by taking the knee, and that fans’ booing was “a choice for them“. She added:

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

This despite Downing Street’s insistence late last week that fans shouldn’t boo the team following criticism over the government’s mixed messaging…

The mixed messaging is continuing nonetheless, with Michael Gove appearing on LBC this morning to directly contradict Patel’s comments:

“No I think that if people want to show the strength of their feeling in that way against prejudice, that’s entirely respectable… I think the main thing is that we should be cheering on our teams.”

So Boris, Gove, and Zahawi support it; Priti Patel and Gillian Keegan oppose it. Guido’s keeping score…