Jeremy Corbyn blasts Keir Starmer's plan to sing national anthem

Jeremy Corbyn blasts Keir Starmer’s plan to open Labour party conference by singing God Save The King as ‘very, very odd’

• The Labour party will sing God Save The King at its annual party conference
• Jeremy Corbyn suggested it was ‘excessively nationalist’ to sing the anthem
• Keir Starmer is expected to open the conference with a tribute to the Queen 
• The Queen’s funeral: All the latest Royal Family news and coverage

Jeremy Corbyn has condemned Labour leader Keir Starmer’s plans for the party to sing the national anthem at its annual conference.

Mr Corbyn said the plan for party members to sing God Save The King at the conference in Liverpool was ‘very, very odd’.

The former Labour Party leader suggested singing the anthem was ‘excessively nationalist’.

Keir Starmer and party bosses took the decision for the national anthem to be sung at the Labour conference for the first time in its history following the death of the Queen earlier this month, and the accession of King Charles III.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn argued: ‘We don’t as a country routinely go around singing the national anthem at every single event we go to’

Keir Starmer attended the Queen’s state funeral on Monday and paid tribute to Britain’s longest-serving monarch

However, Jeremy Corbyn argued the move was unnecessary. He said on Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast: ‘They’ve never done it before, there’s never been any demand to do it.

‘We don’t as a country routinely go around singing the national anthem at every single event we go to. 

‘We don’t sing in schools, we don’t have the raising of the flag as they do in the USA and other places. 

‘We are not that sort of, what I would call, excessively nationalist.’

Keir Starmer attended the Queen’s state funeral on Monday and paid tribute to Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

He said: The death of Elizabeth II ‘marked the passing of an era’.

He added: ‘The dignity, courage, spirit, selflessness and good humour Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II showed throughout her reign will always be with us.

‘We are lucky to call ourselves Elizabethans.’

The Labour leader is expected to open the conference with a tribute to the Queen, just a few days after the monarch’s death.

Labour’s four-day annual conference begins today in Liverpool as party members gather together 

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