Thangam Debbonaire calls for ‘good debate’ about song being performed at Last Night of the Proms but insists it’s up to BBC to decide
Labour’s shadow culture secretary has said Rule, Britannia! “alienates” many Britons as she welcomed a “good debate” about its performance at the Last Night of the Proms.
Thangam Debbonaire described the patriotic anthem as “not my favourite bit of music” and insisted she would leave any decision about its future to the BBC.
In 2020, the broadcaster faced a backlash over a plan to perform the composition without any lyrics in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. The plan was reversed within days.
Critics have long said that Rule, Britannia! has uncomfortable associations with slavery and colonialism. Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the cellist, reignited the debate in January, arguing that the piece should be axed from the Last Night because it made “a lot of people” feel “uncomfortable”.
Asked about Kanneh-Mason’s comments, Ms Debbonaire told the Spectator’s Women with Balls podcast: “It’s not my favourite bit of music. And the Proms is a fantastic institution and it’s the world’s greatest music festival…
“I think it’s a decision for the people who run the Proms and again, like I said, it shouldn’t be politicians who tell people how to run cultural events.
“I think for a lot of people that feels like a very sort of British moment, which I think has to be respected as well, but for a lot of people, as Sheku Kenneh-Mason said, it will feel alienating.
“As I want the Proms – I want culture – to be accessible to everyone, I think it’s a good debate for us to be having.”
Ms Debbonaire’s remarks faced a backlash, with the Conservative Party accusing Labour of being “happy to run roughshod over our national traditions”.
Jack Lopresti, a deputy party chairman, added: “After all, this is the same party whose leader says his favourite piece of classical music was the EU’s anthem, Ode to Joy.”
Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, added: “I think this just gives everyone a sneak preview of the political correctness that we’d be likely to see from a Labour government and one that basically has very little pride in Britain and its history and its tradition.”
Elsewhere in her interview, Ms Debbonaire accused the Conservatives of “fighting culture wars more often than they’re fighting for culture” and lauded the BBC as a “great provider of joy and jobs”.
