GB News accidentally gives pro-EU campaign Thank EU for the Music a helping hand

The annual Brexiteer outrage over EU flags supposedly “hijacking” the Last Night of the Proms didn’t disappoint.

Thank EU for the Music returned to the Royal Albert Hall on September 12, handing out around 5,000 EU flags to concertgoers. The group has been distributing free flags at the Proms every year since 2016 and handed out an estimated 50,000 in Liverpool in the run-up to Eurovision in 2022.

Naturally, GB News was not impressed.

The right-wing broadcaster reported that crowds had “succumbed to a pro-Brussels love-in,” claiming EU flags appeared to outnumber Union Jacks during performances of Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory and other Proms favourites.

But in its eagerness to mock the campaign, GB News managed to give Thank EU for the Music some valuable free publicity.

The article helpfully explained that the group describes itself as a “pro-European group of musicians and music lovers campaigning peacefully for music without borders.”

It told readers that concertgoers were being encouraged to wave the flags in solidarity with musicians affected by post-Brexit touring barriers.

And it went further, outlining the group’s calls for Labour to secure easier EU touring for British artists, improve access to work permits and reduce restrictions around customs, transport, tax and social security.

It even quoted the campaigners arguing that the government’s own evidence shows reducing these barriers would bring economic and cultural benefits to both the UK and EU.

Quite the campaign advert and an argument, it seems, that is becoming increasingly difficult for Brexit supporters to dismiss.

Brexit has created huge barriers for British musicians wanting to work in Europe.

A 2024 Musicians’ Union survey found 75 percent of respondents who had previously worked in the EU said their bookings had declined. 59 percent said touring the EU was no longer financially viable, while 72 percent said their income from EU work had fallen.

And the evidence is no longer coming solely from musicians’ organisations.

Recent government research into the economic impact of Brexit on touring found that UK performances in EU countries in 2024 remained 21 percent below 2019 levels. It estimated that the reduction in UK touring associated with EU exit resulted in £208 million less gross value added and 2,490 fewer full-time equivalent jobs between 2022 and 2024 across the touring sectors covered by the research.

Smaller-scale touring has been particularly affected, with additional immigration, customs, transport, taxation and social security requirements increasing costs and complexity.

In other words, those 5,000 EU flags are not simply a political stunt. For many musicians, Brexit has made it harder and more expensive to do their jobs.

Speaking exclusively to Left Foot Forward, a Thank EU for the Music spokesperson said:

“We thank GB news for highlighting our campaign and we appreciate that they are interested in improving the careers and livelihoods of musicians all-round the country. The best way to support them is by restoring  free movement for musicians

 “As a musician we know our new prime minister will also be keen to help.  

“Andy, we urge you to act on official government research at the forthcoming EU-UK summit and support the UK music industry by negotiating a bespoke cultural touring arrangement or restoring freedom of movement for musicians.”

There is, of course, another response from the right to the sight of EU flags at the Proms: to turn the issue into a culture-war complaint about “lefties”.

Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley went even further, claiming people will vote Reform because “lefties are so incredibly irritating”.

“EU flag-wavers at the Proms embody the bourgeois disdain for Britain that is driving support for Farage,” he writes.

It’s quite a leap from musicians asking for fewer bureaucratic barriers to earning a living to claims about “bourgeois disdain for Britain.” It completely misses the issue at the heart of the campaign: the impact of post-Brexit restrictions on musicians’ livelihoods.

Yet the Brexit culture war continues to reduce the issue to flags.

But the more the right-wing media focuses on the flags, the more it risks drawing attention to the reason they are being waved in the first place.

Thank EU for the Music was founded in 2016 in response to the Brexit vote and campaigns for a borderless music industry. It has continued to call for fewer barriers to European touring and for freedom of movement for musicians.

The group has welcomed the government’s recent research into the impact of Brexit on touring, arguing that the evidence backs up what musicians have been saying for years.

Its campaign is particularly relevant to young and emerging artists, who are less likely to have the money, administrative support or established networks needed to navigate the additional costs and bureaucracy.

The issue, then, is rather bigger than whether someone happens to wave an EU flag at the Proms.

For musicians trying to build careers across Europe, it’s about whether Brexit has made their work more difficult, expensive and bureaucratic — and whether the government is prepared to do something about it.

Thank EU for the Music says it will continue campaigning until it achieves “music without borders”.

And, thanks to GB News and the Telegraph, a few more people now know exactly what it is campaigning for.

Image credit: Bruce Tanner (Last Night of BBC Proms Royal Albert Hall Musicians need Freedom of Movement)