The Prime Minister paradoxically used the feast day of England’s patron saint to simultaneously insist “unity” is key while ranting about Englishmen he feels betray the multicultural project.
Thursday is Saint George’s Day, a feast commemorating the day of the execution of the warrior saint and Christian martyr who through ancient Royal involvement in the Crusades and veneration of his example latterly became the national day of England. The St. George’s Cross and banner also became the symbol and later of England, albeit by a slightly different route as a maritime flag of convenience.
While other saint’s days of the British Isles are occasions for unironic celebration of national pride, English patriotism has long been treated in the United Kingdom as essentially problematic and this longstanding feeling was apparent in the Prime Minister’s remarks around the day. British tabloid newspaper The Express, which has an image of St. George-like Crusader on the masthead and has long campaigned for better appreciation of the feast day noted with outrage today that Sir Keir Starmer’s St. George’s day message this morning didn’t mention the nation of England or even the word England once, and spent as much time calling out Englishmen as it did anything else.
Speaking during a visit to a sports centre in Newcastle on Thursday morning, Sir Keir used England’s national day to again vent his feelings about the 2024 anti-child-murder riots, which spread across the country after the Southport attack, calling those protesting against the killings and the government’s response to them a “mindless minority”. Those who objected to the protests were the real English, he said, while referring to Britain — an Island, not a country — but never England. He said:
That is the patriotism I believe in. Not performative, not divisive, but fair, respectful and proud. That is why, at this moment of deep global instability, we must be absolutely clear about who we are. Because how we respond now will shape this country for decades to come. That means when people try to hijack our flag to spread hate, we should call it out for what it is: plastic patriotism that corrodes the very bonds that tie us together.
…I know what the flag of St. George stands for. It stands for decency over division. Unity over hate. And a country where patriotism is measured by what you put in, not what hate you stir up. Those are the values I will always fight for.
The paper cited a condemnation by the Conservative Party of Starmer’s speech, which stated: “Labour is once again completely out of touch. So distracted by the scandal engulfing their Government, they seem to have forgotten basic history and geography. England is not the same as Britain. Shameful.”
Starmer also published two statements on social media marking St. George’s Day. Again, neither mentioned England by name at all and underlined that the feast day was all about pushing his political agenda, accusing others of “hijack” of the English flag “to spread hate”.
The Prime Minister also hosted a reception at Downing Street to mark St. George’s Day, although this took place not on the feast day itself, but on Monday. Again, the Prime Minister used this event to chastise England for its misdeeds, citing his top examples of positive Englishness being the Coronavirus pandemic, welcoming refugees, and the Olympic Games. He lectured on “absolutely disgusting racism” and said the English were being propagandised from abroad, stating:
…there’s no getting around the fact there are voices both here and abroad who would seek to divide us, who want to set us apart from each other, who want to pretend that in this country that what we really do is distinguish between people, to find the points of difference, to have the sort of toxic culture of hatred between different individuals, different groups, different communities… make no mistake we will not let them do this. We reject their division completely and we will fly our flag proudly. It’s our flag, it belongs to us, and we will fly it for the values that we believe in… they are English values, service, generosity, and respect”
The remarks this week are not the first time Sir Keir has articulated his view that he holds a special and uniquely correct understanding of what real patriotism is, what national values are, and who fits into this world view, with similar remarks made as he launched the ‘Pride in Place‘ spending scheme in February. Starmer then both criticised others for saying integration had failed while also stating himself that integration needed more government support to succeed.
The messages are somewhat at odds with the unashamedly St. George-celebrating Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who decried the anti-English snobbery that rears its head on these occasions, noting that a lot of people governing in Westminster think of Englishness as “awful people” and ghastly”. He said: “It’s our patron saint day, and it’s a day we ought to celebrate. Everyone else does, the Irish go mad on it, the Scots, Welsh, that’s all good and acceptable. But somehow celebrating being English is thought by the establishment in Westminster to be wrong. Well it’s not!”.
Dinging Starmer for “not even once” using the word England today, Farage concluded: “This Prime Minister, this Labour government are the least patriotic we’ve ever had leading our country. They are an absolute disgrace”.