Starmer serves up pork pies and Ross Kemp for St George's Day

Telegraph

22-04-2025

As a surging Reform UK threatens Labour's post-industrial heartlands, Sir Keir Starmer has two secret weapons to show his love for England: the Melton Mowbray pork pie and Ross Kemp.
At a reception to celebrate St George's Day, Downing Street hosted the former EastEnders actor, public sector workers, Rob Beckett the comedian, and sporting figures Sarah Storey and Maro Itoje.
Guests at the party on Tuesday evening were treated to pork pies, Lancashire Eccles cakes and Bakewell tarts, as the Prime Minister praised the value of 'modern patriotism' and celebrated English culture.
A Downing Street spokesman was keen to stress Sir Keir's zeal for his country, pointing out that he has 'previously spoken about the pride that he feels in being English'.
But this was not enough for Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, who declared that Sir Keir 'and his north London friends loathe Englishness'.
Kemp grew up in Essex before attending drama school and is a longstanding Labour supporter, although he endorsed Tory MP Mark Francois in the 2024 general election. The 60 year-old has presented a series of documentaries on war zones and gangs.
Beckett, 39, has frequently talked about his working-class upbringing in south-east London, where his father drove vans, and has described the 'rage' he feels when encountering snobbery in the comedy world.
Mr Farage, whose party is neck-and-neck with Labour in the polls after a prolonged surge since the general election, said the reception showed the Prime Minister was struggling.
He said: 'He is panicking. He and his north London friends loathe Englishness but are losing support to Reform.'
Last week Mr Farage said that Reform was parking its tanks on Labour's lawn in Red Wall areas.
Ahead of the local elections next week, Reform is vying with Labour for first place in The Telegraph's poll of polls, while outperforming the Conservatives.
The party is also on track to win the Runcorn and Helsby by-election next week, following the resignation of Mike Amesbury, the Labour MP jailed for punching a voter.
Sir Keir used Labour's local election campaign launch to attack Mr Farage over his previous positive comments about Vladimir Putin, claiming they showed him not to be a patriot.
The Prime Minister told voters earlier in April: 'They claim to be the party of patriotism. I'll tell you this – there's nothing patriotic about fawning over Putin.'
Mr Farage has faced a backlash across the political spectrum for previous comments he has made about the Russian leader, including saying he 'admired him as a political operator'.
In June 2024, he was criticised for suggesting in a BBC interview that the West provoked Russia's invasion of Ukraine because of the eastern expansion of the European Union and Nato.
Labour, meanwhile, has long struggled with claims that it has abandoned traditional voters. More than a decade ago, Emily Thornberry resigned from the shadow cabinet after an online post about houses displaying England flags that critics took to be disparaging.
Sir Keir wrote in The Telegraph in 2024 that he had 'no time for those who flinch at displaying our flag ' as 'the cross of St George belongs to every person who loves this country and seeks to make it better – a symbol of pride, belonging and inclusion'.
A Labour source said: 'St George's Day doesn't belong to Labour or Reform. Farage will obviously make everything about himself, but tonight's reception isn't about him or Keir.
'It's about the NHS nurses, police officers and sporting heroes that make this country great.'
Riots aftermath 'showed what Englishness is'
The Prime Minister told attendees there there was a 'never-ending fight for our flag and what it represents'.
He referred to the Southport riots after the murders of three girls at a dance class by Axel Rudakubana last summer.
He said that people 'trying to sow division in our communities' had taken 'the red and white of our flag with them' as they caused civil unrest.
Sir Keir added: 'It was the aftermath of the riots that showed what it means to be English. It marked the coming together of a country.
'People who got together the morning after, all across Britain with shovels, brooms, and brushes, to clean up their communities. Rebuilding walls, repairing damage and it's in that spirit that we reclaim our flag.'
He said of the St George's Cross: 'We should be proud of that flag, we must never concede it, because it is an expression of our values and our patriotism.'