This Morning’s Eamonn Holmes condemned for asking Femi Oluwole if he has an ‘issue’ with the word ‘slave’ during ‘Rule Britannia’ debate

Eamonn Holmes has been condemned for asking a This Morning guest whether he has an “issue” with the use of the word “slave”.

On today’s episode of This Morning (26 August), presenters Holmes and Ruth Langsford hosted political activist Femi Oluwole and Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party, in a discussion on “Rule Britannia”.

The song has been at the centre of controversy in recent days, following reports that the BBC were planning to exclude it from The Last Night of the Proms due to its association with slavery and colonialism. Boris Johnson and a number of right-wing press outlets have condemned the plans.

That is despite the BBC explaining that an instrumental version of the song was only to be used as the Proms are occurring without an audience and fewer professional singers due to Covid-19. They also confirmed that it will be sung at the 2021 Proms.

Throughout the This Morning discussion, Oluwole was repeatedly described as someone eager to “re-write history”, despite Oluwole’s protests that the “Rule Britannia” controversy had been kicked off as a deliberate distraction from issues of greater importance.

Other viewers expressed further empathy towards Oluwole.

“Embarrassing to see the treatment of @Femi_Sorry on This Morning. Constantly spoken over by Eamonn and Ruth, being called an ‘extremist’ by Nigel Farage while he was making good points about BLM and how politicians are using ‘Rule Britannia’ to distract from their actions.”

In his own tweet, Oluwole appeared to mock the experience, writing: “Today @EamonnHolmes told me what I should find racist, and @Nigel_Farage called me an extremist. Later, I’ll probably go give a lecture on why Brexit is a good thing.”

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