Rule Britannia ‘alienates’ a lot of Britons, says shadow culture secretary

Thangam Debbonaire welcomes a ‘good debate’ about it being performed at Last Night of the Proms but insists it’s up to the BBC to decide

Labour’s shadow culture secretary has said Rule, Britannia! is “alienating” to lots of 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.
The broadcaster faced a backlash in 2020 over a plan to perform the composition without any lyrics in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was reversed within days.
Critics have long said Rule, Britannia! has uncomfortable associations with slavery and colonialism. Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the cellist, reignited the debate in January after arguing it 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.”
The position taken by the shadow culture secretary is in contrast to that of Downing Street, which earlier this year dismissed calls for Rule, Britannia! to be scrapped and said Rishi Sunak was “comfortable in celebrating British traditions”.
Ms Debbonaire’s remarks faced an immediate backlash from senior Tory MPs on Monday. Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former leader of the Commons, said: “I think that it is a uniting song. It is about the marvellous history of this country to which every British citizen belongs.
“There are always some people who don’t like the country to which they belong. The overwhelming majority of people are proud of Britain, proud of its history, and this is encapsulated in the very stirring words of Rule, Britannia!”
Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, added: “Rule, Britannia! is an integral part of the Last Night of the Proms. Without things like Rule, Britannia!, what on earth is the point of it?
“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.”
Giles Watling, a member of the Commons culture committee, said: “Rule, Britannia! is traditional and people should be able to perform whatever they like.
“I agree to a great extent that politicians shouldn’t interfere in what people do culturally. But we also mustn’t be prescriptive about certain forms of performance unless, and it is a big unless, it promotes hate and division. We should be less jumpy about these things.”
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”.
She also recalled how at the age of four she had “demanded” a cello from her parents, both of whom were musicians, adding: “I was fairly insistent on the subject. There was no diverting me at all, and that was because I had a babysitter who played the cello…I had a small cello, a quarter size.
“I was fairly impatient with the cello and the bow that you play it with when it wouldn’t make the noise that you wanted it to, and I’m afraid to say I threw my bow out the window. But I went on to practise very hard, and music’s been part of my life ever since.”