It’s a bit late for the tut-tutting now.

Boris Johnson and Priti Patel have been accused of hypocrisy over their stance on racism in football, after they condemned the abuse of three black England players but previously refused to criticise fans who booed the team for taking the knee.

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Sayeeda Warsi, a Conservative peer and former co-chairman, sent a public message to Patel, the home secretary, calling on her and all Conservatives to “think about our role in feeding this culture in our country”.

“If we ‘whistle’ & the ‘dog’ reacts we can’t be shocked if it barks & bites,” she tweeted. “It’s time to stop the culture wars that are feeding division. Dog whistles win votes but destroy nations.”

She added: “As a proud centre-right politician, as a proud part of a diverse vibrant nation that produced a football team that spoke to and represented England in all its modern diverse glory it shames me that in 2021 some in politics are still playing fast & loose with issues of race.”

I wonder if she was expecting Boris Johnson to be a pillar of anti-racism.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, was even more explicitly critical, saying Johnson and Patel “gave licence to the racists who booed the England players and are now racially abusing England players”. She said they were “like arsonists complaining about a fire they poured petrol on – total hypocrites”.

Johnson and Patel reject the accusation.

However, both have repeatedly stopped short of criticising fans who booed England players for taking the knee in a stand against racism. Patel has also said taking the knee represents “gesture politics” and whether to boo the England players was a “choice” for fans to make.

Well lots of things are “gesture politics,” aren’t they. Racist abuse of the players is gesture politics, rebuking players who take the knee is gesture politics, rebuking fans who send racist abuse to the players is gesture politics. Gestures are not automatically trivial.

As the players were subjected to a barrage of online abuse, a Tory MP had to apologise for suggesting Rashford should have concentrated on football rather than “playing politics” in an apparent reference to his campaign for free school meals.

Natalie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover and Deal, made the comment in a WhatsApp message to fellow MPs, suggesting Rashford should not have spent time on his successful campaign for free school meals for low-income pupils in the school holidays.

In comments first reported by GB News, Elphicke said: “They lost – would it be ungenerous to suggest Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics.”

Why yes, it would; thank you for asking. And seeing as how his campaign was successful, it wasn’t really “playing,” was it. Children’s full bellies aren’t a gesture, they’re the real thing.