THIS is the moment the Labour Party conference in Liverpool burst into a rendition of the UK national anthem.
It is the first time the song has been sung at the event and follows the death of the Queen after her 70-year reign.
There were fears some on the republican left of the party might have interrupted or heckled as others sang God Save the King but reports from the conference suggested it went without hitch.
Other reports from the scene suggested some delegates simply dodged attending that part of the event, which kicked off on Sunday.#
Party functionaries handed attendees a copy of the lyrics for the shortened version of the anthem, in case they did not know the words.
Keir Starmer’s (some would say) risky move of leading rendition of national anthem at Labour conference passes off without a hitch. 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/BbpxUUJ1F7
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) September 25, 2022
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – who remains expelled from the parliamentary party and currently sits as an independent MP – said he found the move “peculiar and not really necessary”.
He added: “We don’t, as a country, routinely go around singing the national anthem at every single event we go to.
“We don’t sing it 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 and I don’t see the point or the need for it.”
It is believed the move is partly to distance the party from the Corbyn era and brand it as patriotically British to win over voters in England.
Scottish independence supporters have pounced on the display of nationalism, with Marcus Carslaw, the vice-convenor of the SNP’s Glasgow Kelvin branch, sharing the video with the caption: “Save this and remember to quote tweet it at Scottish Labour types who bemoan nationalism or eating flags.”
Mhairi Hunter, a former Glasgow SNP councillor, said: “My view is that politicians on both left and right in every country tend to be patriotic. It's quite normal.
“Only in Scotland do some people think it's wrong to be proud of your country's flag, so Labourites end up hoist by their own rhetorical petard.”
