A SOMERSET footballer has hit out at the Home Secretary after several England players received racist abuse after the team's loss in the Euro 2020 final.

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were racially abused on social media after they missed penalties in England's shootout loss to Italy at Wembley on Sunday night (July 11).

Today (Monday), England manager Gareth Southgate condemned the abuse, saying: "It's just not what we stand for.

"We have been a beacon of light in bringing people together, in people being able to relate to the national team, and the national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue.

"We have shown the power our country has when it does come together and has that energy and positivity together."

The UK’s football policing unit has launched an investigation after players were subjected to racist hate online following the Three Lions’ loss to Italy at Wembley.

READ MORE: Is Tyrone Mings the first Somerset-born player for the England men's football team?

And Prime Minister Boris Johnson, during a coronavirus press conference this evening, said: “To those who have been directing racist abuse at some of the players, I say shame on you and I hope you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged."

But it was the response of Home Secretary Priti Patel that provoked the ire of Aston Vila star, and Bath-born, Tyrone Mings.

Earlier this summer, responding to fans booing England players taking the knee before matches as a show of solidarity against inequality, the Home Secretary told GB News she Home Secretary Patel did not agree, telling GB News she doesn't "support people participating in that type of gesture politics".

Yet after details of the abuse emerged, the Home Secretary tweeted how she was 'disgusted' by it and players who 'have given so much for our country' should not be subjected to it.

Mings, who was educated at Millfield School in Street, responded on Twitter, saying: "You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens."