Boris: Don’t ban singing of Swing Low anthem at rugby

BORIS Johnson yesterday joined a chorus of criticism after rugby chiefs said that they were considering asking England fans not to belt out Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

The Prime Minister spoke out after the Rugby Football Union announced it was ‘reviewing’ the song due to its links to slavery. He said: ‘I certainly don’t think there should be any sort of prohibition on singing that song. My curiosity is, why don’t people seem to know the rest of it? I’d love to hear the rest of it.’

Rugby fan Mr Johnson added: ‘I think people need to focus less on the symbols of discrimination... what I want to focus on is the substance of the issue.’

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is an African-American spiritual thought to have been written by a freed slave called Wallace Willis in the mid-19th century. It is thought to have been sung by rugby fans for the first time at Twickenham in London in the late 1980s in tribute to black players Martin Offiah and Chris Oti.

But Trevor Phillips, former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, yesterday criticised the review, suggesting that it meant ‘black people’s own culture being cancelled’.

However, ex-England and Lions hooker Brian Moore said he ‘hated’ the song, tweeting: ‘It’s c**p as a national song because it has no relevance to England.’

Sir Clive Woodward – Page 100