GB News panellists clashed over whether Rule Britannia is offensive after a Labour frontbencher claimed the song “alienates” people.
Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, insisted it is “for the birds” that the piece of music is “inextricably linked to colonialism and the slave trade”.
But commentator Amy Nickell-Turner argued that the song, which is traditionally accompanied by flag-waving at the Last Night of the Proms, makes people feel “uncomfortable”.
During the debate on Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg’s show, Mr Yound said: “It’s often a point overlooked when people criticise Rule Britannia.
“It’s a celebration of the Royal Navy and the role it’s played in not only preserving our freedom but we shouldn’t forget that the West Africa Squadron which was established in 1807 and lasted almost 60 years, was created to abolish slavery, abolish the slave trade in the Mid-Atlantic, and did so with some success, it freed over 150,000 slaves.
“So the idea that this song celebrating the Royal Navy is somehow inextricably linked to colonialism and the slave trade is just for the birds.”
But Ms Nickell-Turned replied: “You can’t say that, you can’t say it’s for the birds.
“Look at the lyrics, ‘Rule Britannia, rule the waves, Britons will never slaves’. That obviously is going to make people feel certain things and that’s why people are so upset by it.”
Former MEP Annunziata Rees-Mogg, who is Mr Rees-Mogg’s sister, said: “It’s about us leading the world in freedom, in liberty.”
Mr Rees-Mogg added: “And the Mansfield’s judgment which you have at around the time it’s written which says there is no concept of slavery in England.”
Ms Nickell-Turner said: “I know there is this academic explanation of the song lyrics but people are perceive them differently and people hear ‘Britons will never be slaves’ and they feel hurt by it. The connotation is clear.”
Mr Young responded: “You’re making a leap from saying ‘Britons shall never to slaves’ to somehow thinking that implies other people should be slaves.
“It doesn’t imply that and we know it doesn’t imply that because we did free other people who were slaves.”
Ms Rees-Mogg added: “It’s exactly why we should sing the song so people can understand quite how important our history is and be able to take pride in the changes we made to the global environment that did stop slavery.”
But Ms Nickell-Turner hit back: “The point I’m making is people hear it and they hear certain connotations and it makes them uncomfortable which is why this debate keeps coming round and round again.”
The clash comes after shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire waded into the debate over the controversial song.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the cellist who played at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, said in January that the piece should be dropped because it makes many people feel “uncomfortable”.
Asked about Mr Kanneh-Mason’s comments, Ms Debbonaire told the Spectator’s Women with Balls podcast: “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.”
